Laid against a scenic backdrop of an Outer Hebrides village, The Road Dance tells the traumatic tale of a young woman’s struggles.
The Road Dance first came to UK festival screens in 2021 and only one year ago gained U.S. commercial distribution. It is directed by Richie Adams and adapted by him from a book by John MacKay. While the screenplay concentrates on a young woman’s traumas, which is based on real life happenings, the scenic atmosphere almost overpowers the film’s sad storyline.
The Road Dance was shot on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. So many impressive sequences feature the strong and often threatening sea waves, the rocky shores, and the dimly-lit primitive stone edifices in which the villagers live, that at times the stark beauty of the settings verge on interfering with the viewer’s attention to the plot.
Yet the sorrowful story of main character Kirsty Macleod, played by British actress Hermione Corfield, is memorable. The time is World War I. The young men of the tiny Scottish village are being conscripted to do battle on the Western Front. As a gesture to them as they are about to depart, the village has a road dance. In the murky darkness of that night, Kirsty is raped by an unknown assailant.
Before the war and the rape, Kirsty and her beloved Murdo— a student of literature who is teasingly called Murdo “Books,” have a future together. They both are readers, and they are dreamers. They hope to make a future in America together. Both love the poetry of Robert Frost.
Sadly, the war complicates their being together. The rape is harrowing and horrific with consequences that spoil Kirsty’s chances for an upbeat future. Kirsty becomes changed by the rape, which was physically brutal and resulted in a serious head wound. She tells no one what actually happened to her. Only the village doctor who treats her injuries knows her plight. She hides the consequences. How ironic that the evening of her possible ruination is the first time she wears a virginal white party dress!
The Road Dance brings viewers into the cave-like homes of Kirsty and her family, as well as to a few other villagers. The early years of the Twentieth Century are pre-electricity in the rural village. Director Adams has a successful career as a film title designer; he is a visualist who emphasizes image and lighting design throughout the movie. The scenes inside the rustic homes are deftly lit, using lanterns and what may be natural lighting or a talented interpretation of it.
The film opens with a quote from Robert Louis Stevenson: “To be what we are and to become what we are capable of becoming is the only end of life.” To be honest, this quote confuses me because it may or may not foretell an ending that we should not know.
The Road Dance is streaming on a number of sites. It took two years or more for this film to come to the broad attention of audiences outside the UK. Maybe the designation of arthouse subject on streaming sites has prevented a larger mainstream audience from taking a look.
While visually arty, its storyline, sadly, is basic and far too commonplace to be considered arty or even imaginative. Watching The Road Dance, viewers will experience drama, romance, mystery and real-life tragedy – all in a story that unfortunately is not too far out of the ordinary. Even with a pace slower than most dramas, throughout it held my interest.
Audrey Kupferberg is a film and video archivist and retired appraiser. She is lecturer emeritus and the former director of Film Studies at the University at Albany and co-authored several entertainment biographies with her late husband and creative partner, Rob Edelman.
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