Every Picture Tells a Story

Scott reaches back into his family history to describe the adolescence of his father, painter William Scott. The film traces William's life from his childhood in an Irish Catholic family in Scotland to his teenage years in Enniskillen and Belfast. The fundamental theme is the emergence of the boy's talent as an artist, part rooted in his harsh childhood experiences and part born of his need to break away from those roots. Handsomely stylised images and performances of unassailable authority make it very beautiful, and sometimes very moving.