“Mission,” directed by Paul Wright, is set to premiere in competition at Edinburgh Film Festival this week. The Glasgow-set drama stars George MacKay as Dylan, a young man struggling with the emptiness of his daily life who embarks on a week of chaotic self-discovery involving various extreme acts. Rosy McEwen plays Claire, Dylan’s sister, who witnesses her brother’s frantic attempt to find meaning and feel alive.
The production distinguishes itself through an unconventional approach to filmmaking. Rather than working from a traditional screenplay, Wright created an extensive visual lookbook to establish the film’s tone, then developed a series of scenarios and circumstances for the characters to navigate. The actors were given general context about their characters’ emotional states and motivations, but were granted substantial freedom to explore and improvise within those parameters. MacKay notes that much of the film’s meaning emerged during production and through Wright’s editing process, as he assembled the material into a final narrative.
McEwen described the experience as unusually liberating, attributing much of this freedom to the intimate scale of the production with a small crew. She worked for limited periods during the shoot yet felt she lived a complete life within those days due to the intensity of the collaborative process. The actors praised Wright’s directing methodology, which drew from his earlier work including the archive-based documentary “Arcadia.”
Both MacKay and McEwen are currently in demand professionally. MacKay recently appeared in “1917” and has upcoming projects including a “Sense and Sensibility” adaptation arriving in October and a prequel to “Ocean’s Eleven” featuring Margot Robbie. McEwen has appeared in “Blue Jean” and “Black Mirror,” and is currently portraying a young Nicole Kidman in the Prime Video series “Scarpetta.” Despite their involvement in larger studio productions, both actors expressed their commitment to independent filmmaking as a space for creative growth and artistic development.
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