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Sunset Song is Terence Davies’ intimate epic of hope, tragedy and love at the dawning of the Great War. A young woman’s endurance against the hardships of rural Scottish life, based on the novel by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, told with gritty poetic realism by Britain’s greatest living auteur. The film takes place during the early years of the twentieth century, with the conflicts and choices a young woman experiences reflecting the struggle between tradition and change; a struggle that continues to resonate today. Set in a rural community, Sunset Song is driven by the young heroine Chris and her intense passion for life, for the unsettling Ewan and for the unforgiving land. The First World War reaches out from afar, bringing the modern world to bear on the community in the harshest possible way, yet in a final moment of grace, Chris endures, now a woman of remarkable strength who is able to draw from the ancient land in looking to the future. Sunset Song is at once epic in emotional scale and deeply romantic at its core, given power by Terence Davies’ unflinching poetic realism.
 
Director Terence Davies
Producer Roy Boulter
Producer Sol Papadopoulos
Producer Nicolas Steil
Co-executive Producer Alice de Sousa
Executive Producer Bob Last
Director of Photography Michael McDonough A.S.C.
Edited by David Charap
Line Producer Victoria Dabbs
Production Designer Andy Harris
Art Direction by Margaret Horspool
Diana van de Vossenberg
Set Decoration by Sylvia Kasel
Composer Gast Waltzing
Agyness Deyn as Chris Guthrie
Peter Mullan as John Guthrie
Kevin Guthrie as Ewan Tavendale
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“SUPERB. SENSUAL AND GLOWINGLY LYRICAL. A grand-scale melodrama compressed into the quietly burning point of a single soul.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker
[Note – “Superb” is from another blog post by Brody about the film]
“MAJESTIC. The actors generate tremendous electricity,” – Melissa Anderson, The Village Voice
“A LUMINOUS PERFORMANCE by Agyness Deyn” – Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“FOUR STARS. STIRRING AND GORGEOUS. The sheer visual grandeur sweeps you along.” – Tom Huddleston, Time Out
“VISUALLY STUNNING, EMOTIONALLY ENGROSSING.” – Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter
“A TOUR DE FORCE.” – David D’Arcy, Screen Daily
“FIVE STARS. IT’S MAGICAL.” – Nigel Andrews, The Financial Times
“Beautifully made and deeply felt.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“Filled with lovely moments. It’s impossible to take your eyes off the earthy-while ethereal Deyn.” – Tom Long, The Detroit News
“Deyn gives a vivid performance—whenever she steps out into the wider world, the movie soars.” – J.R. Jones, The Chicago Reader
“Davies’s long-delayed passion project finally reaches our screens. It has been worth the wait.” – Mark Kermode, The Observer
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