Originally just planning on making a film examining the sounds on the Scottish Hebrides, Canadian filmmaker Joshua Bonnetta, shot impressions of the bleak natural beauty of the area on 16mm-film, made field recordings of the waves and the fauna and lastly, also interviewed the islanders. A subject which came up again and again was that there is the long-held belief that the Hebrides are a “soft place” where the borders between the living and the passed-on are less clear. This in turn leads to people having what is termed “Second Sight”, the ability to see visions of the future, mostly related to an imminent death. Sometimes they see motes of light floating round their beard or have clear visions of an animal, sometimes even just hear things the meaning of which only becomes clear in dramatic fashion many years later. In all cases the people living on the islands seem submerged in the entire atmosphere of the islands, visible or not.
Appropriately, THE TWO SIGHTS is an immersive experience, a tapestry of images of waves, heaths, animals and the occasional human, the sounds sometimes related to the visuals on screen or to visuals that were on screen a while back or are yet to appear. And once in a while, stories are told from off-camera, in English or Gaelic, sometimes first-hand but mostly handed on, about the strange things that have always happened on the islands and that seem as natural there as the tides. Whether one believes them or dismisses the tales as superstition, is a personal choice. The power of Bonnetta’s film is a fact, and if one wanted to say something bad about it, it could be only that the film makes you sad that you’re not on the islands yourself, witnessing this special atmosphere. On the other hand, it is a lot warmer and drier in the cinema.

Christian Klose