The Language of Film

Irvine Welsh: Reality Is Not Enough

A documentary film about the Scottish author Irvine Welsh most famous for his book Trainspotting, his work has been like a tour de force in disrupting the literary world, whose characters mostly deal with drug addiction and crime told with extreme prejudice and wit. Here he shares a retrospective look back at his life, career, politics, drug taking and continued search to find meaning to it all. In UK and Irish cinemas from 26^th September.

They say write what you know so this documentary delves into how exactly Irvine Welsh’s outlandish stories and characters came to be. The film begins with him giving his profound speech on the meaning of life. This wasn’t written for the documentary especially but some 30 years ago illustrating his prolonged questioning of life, which has been a driving force in his writing and is illustrated by similar prose read by actors including Maxine Peake, Liam Neeson, Stephen Graham, Nick Cave and Ruth Negga.

Irvine Welsh, Beyond Borders International Festival 2022, Innerleithen, 27 August 2022

The director Paul Sng picks up his story in Canada for the opening night at the Toronto Book Festival where Irvine Welsh is giving a reading from his second novel Marabou Stalk Nightmares. Any doubts about the intensity of how his work should be interpreted are cast aside by his terrets like explosive performance that brings a stifled laughter, from a largely conservative looking audience, as he describes the inner thoughts of a drug comatose patient.

Reflecting on his life as an author over 30 years, worryingly he says “the older you get the less appealing intoxication becomes”, but any concerns over his creativity are abated as he sets off to try a DMT, ayahuasca type hallucinogenic trip, at a drug clinic in Canada. Offering psychedelic enhanced therapy, his online meeting with the CEO of the clinic does not start well, with the manager literally hanging up on him. As a man well versed in drug taking, Irvine Welsh’s disinterest in the corporate preamble and wanting to ‘take the drugs and get on with it’, was in complete contrast to the more controlled experience on offer. He was going to have to toe-the-line if he wanted to continue his exploratory ‘education’.

Laid out on the office floor he smokes the DMT pipe and the documentary then shifts to the dark interiors of a warehouse to further explore the intricacies of Irvine Welsh’s mind. Based near his home town of Muirhouse, in the north of Edinburgh, he walks and talks through some screen projections on the walls showing photos and film of his childhood and life’s work.

I Am Irvine Welsh, Biscuit Factory, Edinburgh, Scotland, 4th April 2023

He starts with the major influences of his childhood and his parents growing up in Scotland, his early run-ins with the police and identifying the need to get out and explore. He has a fascination with death and dying too, which is not totally morbid, but is more motivational towards doing something with your life. It is a strong message of his that resonates with audiences despite the harrowing stories, and is iconised in the soundtrack to the film Trainspotting by Danny Boyle, in what he calls a balance between brutality and humour in the darkest moments.

We meet his wife and there is a funny interaction with him and his old school pals talking about playing football on the streets when she asks, “would you play on grass?” to which Irvine Welsh quickly retorts, “aye, sometimes on glue”. The tone switches as jokes about football as kids turn to appearing in court for minor misdemeanours and then the arrival of smack in the neighbourhood that Irvine Welsh puts into a unique juxtaposition of an equal horror between the white collar nine-to-five and doing heroin, which his writing became an escape from.

Irvine Welsh and Darren Emerson, Radisson Red Sky Bar, 17th April 2022

There is a strong undercurrent of political and social struggle in his work that emanates from his Scottish heritage and another significant place to him is Hackney, London where he moved to from Scotland. A place known he says for being an epicentre of counterculture and for attracting disaffected punks. He was taken in there by Debbie Donovan, who also happened to be a central figure during the miners’ strike, ensuring he didn’t just subsist on drugs and punk music but further politicised the young Irvine Welsh’s mind. After his later successes he then moves to the USA and Miami along with the interviews, where he continues to talk about his development as a writer, further dissecting his writing approach.

Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting Live and Porno, Edinburgh, 28 August 2022

These all make for an interesting mix of people and places, past and present to tell his writers’ story. Thirteen novels, numerous screen plays, adaptions for TV, radio, film and theatre, and even stints as a DJ, Irvine Welsh has been good to his word on leading a full life and after his latest DMT trip fans will be interested to know what happens next…perhaps some actual trainspotting?

Film: Irvine Welsh: Reality Is Not Enough

Director: Paul Sng

Genre: Documentary

Stars: Irvine Welsh, Maxine Peake, Nick Cave

Run time: 1hr 28mins

Rated: 18

Rating: 3/5

Ackroyd & Harvey: The Art of Activism

This is a documentary about two artists, Ackroyd and Harvey, a couple who use art as activism. Their work spans decades in the UK and here it is shown in particular connection with conservationism and the Extinction Rebellion. In UK and Irish cinemas from 19^th September.

The film starts with Ackroyd (Heather) and Harvey (Dan) playfully chatting to the camera sat in their studio working on one of their latest exhibits ‘Penny Pangolin’. It is part of an exhibition to highlight the extinction rate of many species, with the pangolin being one of the highest. It is going on display at the David Attenborough building, at the University of Cambridge, where they have had a three year residency.

The place brings together lots of global conservation organisations and combines artists with science, which conservationist Dr John Fanshawe says, to use an unfortunate expression, is fuelling the conversations in conservation around the world, including at the world economic forum in Davos.

Another installation of theirs, ‘Seeing Red…Overdrawn’, is an interactive art work with the names of 4,734 critically endangered species that invites the public to ink in the Latin and common names of the species. The mural has connotations (along with the pangolin) of the later pandemic and the National Covid Memorial on London’s Southbank. As Dan Harvey says, we’re heading to the sixth largest mass extinction on the planet, it’s human induced and people are acting like its business as usual. You can’t just sit around and do nothing.

Writer Louisa Buck underlines the fact that the climate crisis is a climate catastrophe and that artists are leading the way in constantly raising the consciousness through their work to ensure the world sits up and takes notice and hopefully does something about it.

The talking heads include Heather’s artistic mentor and friend Cornelia Parker who introduced her to the work of artist David Nash, which led Heather to begin working with natural materials such as grass seeds and the couple’s major breakthrough making photographic portraits using grass photosynthesis.

Not everyone appreciates the value of art and in a snippet chat show host Judy Finnegan asks the all-important question: what’s the point – this isn’t art? when interviewing the couple about a grassy walled installation at a disused South London church.

It may not always be obvious in their work, but their involvement with conservation and activism sees them returning with ‘grass coats’ at London Fashion Week and the Extinction Rebellion (XR) protests in 2019, which they first modelled in protest against fur at London Fashion Week in the early 90s. Aiming to unite the fashion industry in combating climate change, the activists rightly proclaim the impact of one school girl, Greta Thunberg, and the need for big industries to be on board (albeit whilst having the financial responsibility to suc-ceed). Ackroyd and Harvey continue with the XR occupation protests in central London that includes poetry readings and the support of actress Emma Thompson as well as the thousands that camped out on the streets.

Directed by Fiona Cunningham-Reid, the documentary provides an interesting insight into the lives of a formidable artistic couple who have worked together over many years in the UK. Their credibility in the art world is clear having being selected as the country’s 2012 Olympic artists alongside Anish Kapoor and besides the art and conservation, the documentary also focuses on their relationship over the time period, that includes the pandemic, which had a big impact on them; and they openly talk about this too.

The striking visuals of the art speak for themselves and are made especially poignant because of the climate activism and the couple’s unique standing in the art world. Their peaceful art of activism is a welcome sign of intelligence in a world still unapologetically at loggerheads over the future of the planet, which there seems not enough legislation for.

Film: Ackroyd & Harvey: The Art of Activism

Director: Fiona Cunningham-Reid

Genre: Documentary

Stars: Heather Ackroyd, Dan Harvey, Cornelia Parker

Run time: 1hr 20mins

Rated: 12A

Rating: 3/5

Dreaming of You: The Making of the Coral

A music documentary taking a nostalgic look back at the journey of ‘the Coral‘, a band hitting in the 2000s, formed by a group of six high school friends, from a ‘tea-side’ town in the Wirral, Merseyside, who went from the school rehearsal rooms to Top of the Pops and touring the USA with Supergrass. In UK cinemas from 12th September 2025.

The title of the documentary “Dreaming of You” comes from their debut album and is the band’s signature track that pervades the documentary along with their other hits. Just looking at the home videos and clips of the band you can see they live up to their self-confessed moniker of a bit weird, whilst their musical influences become too many to mention. Some obvious ones are the Beatles, Oasis, New Order and Nick Cave but there is a lot more to unpick in their “psychedelic skiffle” and Merseybeat sound that gets Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds approval as a real guitar band at just 16 and 17 years old. He agrees to produce their first album but it is a long journey of ambition and self belief before that moment arrives as the band narrates each step of the way from their childhood meetings to performing at Glastonbury.

The band is made up of brothers James and Ian Skelly but it was Ian and Paul Duffy (guitar/bass) that start off jamming in the family’s pub basement before brother James joins on vocals and Bill Ryder-Jones and Lee Southall join on guitars followed by fellow lyricist Nick Power on keys.

The documentary shows how the band sticks together and manages to pick up the right connections along the way from performing at battle of the bands in Liverpool and at the Cavern for the tourist crowds to then being picked up by Alan Wills to manage them and getting a deal with Sony Music. Their song “Pass it On” sounds like a reference to all their influences they were absorbed in studying like writing lyrics based on hearing Noel Gallagher wrote a song from a Coca-Cola advert or the group’s collective listening to records together such as Captain Beefheart or going on an acid walk as did the group the Doors. But, it is their own collective vision, determination and talent that shines through with a creative energy that understands the importance of making videos and using home movies to express themselves, not just in music but by acting up in front of the camera with a silliness that mimics videos from the Monkees and the Beatles, adding further interest to this weird little gang’s rise together.

Directed by James Slater, who had worked on some of the band’s early music videos, he was tasked with putting together this ‘making of story’ using old family photo albums and home video footage with animations and illustrations to fill in the gaps of the story. The animation by Matthew Dolan includes a ghost hunting themed video game showing the band members joining up one by one in reference to the seaside arcades and the gang’s first business venture as ghost hunters, which corroborates the bands ghostly ‘Specials’ sound too. The illustrations from Stephan Lucas in a comic strip style also fit the band’s cartoon inspired childhood days of dressing up. Their developing artistic tastes can be seen through their budget music videos using a fisheye lens and stop motion effects as seen in an early video “Skeleton Key“, culminating in the wicker man pyrotechnics in “Goodbye“; and the pop art collages on the album cover are used throughout the documentary.

One of the band members says: “If you’re going to tell the story of the Coral, it would be a story about growing up. An adventure that led to an album”, which does sum up this endearing documentary, hearing of the childhood memories and a childlike dream that became an obsession for a group of kids to make it as a successful pop act – which they accomplished with bells on.

This provides a great road map into how to make it as a UK band. A rare and unique blend of circumstances, youthful exuberance and bags of …talent that results in the Coral leaving their own legacy on UK music that can be heard in the, acknowledged, influence on the Artic Monkeys and Blossoms. Eleven studio albums later, long may the adventure continue.

Film: Dreaming of You: The Making of the Coral

Director: James Slater

Genre: Documentary

Stars: James Skelly, Ian Skelly, Paul Duffy

Run time: 1hr 20mins

Rated: 15

Rating: 3/5

The Road to Patagonia

A road trip documentary to beat all road trips if you like surfing, motorbikes and outdoor adventure but what elevates this to a less than ordinary journey is the spiritual and natural world guidance empirically gathered by Aussie Matty Hannon, a surfer and ecology student, who sets out to surf 80,000km of the pacific coast of the Americas from Alaska to Patagonia. Out now on digital release 28th July.

The story begins with his early endeavours of adventure. Firstly, a calamitous road trip with a pal, Pete, who despite being a mechanical engineer, seemed to have a real knack for bringing chaos including flipping over the campervan and setting the engine on fire, all effortlessly caught on film by Matty with a distinct Aussie calmness. His next big adventure was a visit to a remote tribe in Sumatra Indonesia having seen a photograph of one of the tribe’s people in a library book. After spending eight years with the tribe learning about hunting, fishing, building and their relationship with the spirits, on his return home he found it hard to settle back into city life and was diagnosed with anxiety and depression.

He needed another challenge and as a surfer with an interest in ecology and shaman he decides surfing the coast of the Americas in a homemade custom built motorbike and side cart (adapted to carry his surf board) should do the trick. Starting off in the freezing waters of Alaska and having his tent surrounded by wolves at night certainly lived up to the tag of challenging.

On the coast of British Columbia he meets a fellow surfer and eco warrior, Heather (a young farmer specialising in permaculture and agroforestry), who he strikes up a bond with and whom he eventually invites to join him on his epic bike adventure, but not before he gets his bike stolen in Mexico and is joined by a group of Aussie pals for some dessert dune biking. Heather does eagerly agree to join him to cross some of the most impassable terrain imaginable despite having never ridden a bike before. Their romantic forage together on the pacific coast unfolds and eventually, after deciding the bike route won’t allow them to get close enough to mother nature and the coastal waves, especially not without running out of gas, they sell the bikes to Sam and Mick, a couple of cowboys they meet on the road in exchange for four horses and some surf lessons thrown in. With neither of them having any experience of horses, they then saddle up for the final leg of the journey with Salvador, Pichi, Blacky and Harimau.

It doesn’t get much wilder than this and between the camp fires, huge surf and epic day and night vistas there is also a connection with some of the lost tribes’ people associated with the land along the way who have seen their language, culture and people disappear through deforestation, civil fighting and colonisation including the ancient Maya civilisation, the Zapatistas and Mapuché. We see how the natural habitats are today being ravaged by industry and the toxic waste produced, which isn’t a million miles away from the consumer landscape Matty left behind in Melbourne, and was serious enough for them to be told not to surf there. By contrast they go from Guatemala to the Amazon River in Peru where they discover the most amazing animal bio-diversity and take some further shaman like reflection on the world order.

Matty Hannon films and directs the documentary alongside Heather and what’s impressive is his flair for filming sequence shots whilst being on his own with limited filming equipment and how he managed to record, safely store and also maintain battery throughout the two and a half year journey in the most remote areas is highly commendable. Including in such treacherous conditions where his tent gets blown away in storms and his bike is stolen, but all the while Matty manages to capture his travel story. There are some nice music tracks selected to accompany the storytelling too that add real savour to the narrative heightening the road trip feeling further.

There seemed significant skips in the journey, not least the Californian coast famous for its surfing USA but maybe that can be excused if it didn’t fit the anti-consumerism message to see the surf communities en masse enjoying the waves too. Instead the film sticks to the memo and highlights the now growing movement towards the rights of nature in the environmental fight to protect them.

Matty and Heather’s mini resistance tale carries a heartening message not least for adventure, although travelling 1,000s of kilometres down the pacific coast riding bareback might be a bit extreme for most, and there is a genuine plea to maintain a human connection and respect for mother nature.

The Road to Patagonia is available on UK & Irish digital platforms: Apple TV, Amazon, Sky Store, Google Play / YouTube Movies, Microsoft Store

Watch on AppleTV here.

Film: The Road to Patagonia

Director: Matty Hannon

Genre: Documentary

Stars: Matty Hannon, Heather Hillier

Run time: 1hr 31mins

Rated: 15

Rating: 3/5

Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade

A documentary film piecing together the last decade of John Lennon’s life provides a look back at the events leading up to the fateful day in December 1980 when one of the UK’s most famous musicians was murdered outside the Dakota his adopted second home in New York.

Directed by Alan G Parker, a music documentarian known for Never Mind the Sex Pistols as well as It Was Fifty Years Ago Today…Sgt Pepper and Beyond, Parker pulls together the story through interviews with the musicians and journalists around John Lennon at the time when making what would be his last album Double Fantasy with his wife, Yoko Ono.

The documentary starts off with the lead up to his new tour which was going to take place after a five year hiatus, at the age 40 years old. There’s a general air of surprise from the tour manager, musicians and journalists who get the call to work on the album, which is maybe an inference of a fall from grace but there is also an unbelievable gratitude to get the honour to work with John Lennon. The album gets finished and the media interviews wrap up and everybody goes home on that December evening, then news starts to filter in early the next morning…

Of course the documentary journeys back further than a decade to pick out the people and events in his life that quickly reshapes our knowledge and understanding of who John Lennon was, but in the context of an agent provocateur, starting with archive footage of him defending his infamous simile about the popularity of the Beatles, the band of four working class lads from Liverpool, attracting the world’s attention in what was termed ‘Beatlemania’. Then it moves onto his relationship and marriage with Yoko Ono, the Japanese artist who captured his love with her eccentric artistic sensibilities that was epitomised by their famous naked Love In at their apartment, where they invited in the press to spread an anti war message of peace and love for which his name and music became synonymous with.

The interviews Alan G Parker pulls together have an interesting journalistic bias but are not without input from the musicians and the music producers that were also around John Lennon at the time providing a valid weight of credibility and include some incredulous revelations as well as some curious anecdotes that will nonetheless have fans and critics mulling over for hours, such as the broadcast news journalist on the Emergency ward of the hospital at the time of John’s arrival who could not help but breach his journalistic ethics.

The opening credits show a bold ambition that perhaps lack a final finesse, which would be a harsh appraisal of the documentary overall as its genuineness in the serious subject matter and the closeness to the final moments it takes the audience makes it avid viewing even at an extended run time of 2 hours 20 minutes.

Timely and poignant as ever the end story doc of an inevitable iconic musical great.

Opening in UK cinemas from 2nd May with an exclusive Director’s Cut available on the Icon Film Channel from the same day.

Film: Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade

Director: Alan G Parker

Genre: Documentary

Stars: Ray Connolly, Carl Slick, Gerry Cagle

Run time: 2hr 20mins

Rated: TBC

Rating: 3/5

Sunray: Fallen Soldier

Sunray: Fallen Soldier is a film about an army veteran who goes out to get revenge on the drug syndicate behind the death of his daughter from a drug overdose, going on a vigilante killing spree with a little help from his old colleagues. Available on digital platforms and selected UK cinemas from 24th January 2025. Rated 18.

The film jumps straight into the action starting off with a pickup at a drug’s factory. A van is loaded with melons, containing ‘the product’, by four wise cracking geezers whose banter is brought to an abrupt end after hearing some commotion inside and a sudden sniper shot taking the first one out. The annihilation is then all but complete except for one, who gets a brief interrogation by ‘Echo 1’ Andy (Tip Cullen), that leaves the burning question “Where is he?” and a large body count.

We then jump back nine days to find out what started all of this and to discover who Andy is if not an officially retired army veteran who still has close ties with his old pals. He’s divorced, living in a remote trailer, working a routine job in a hardware store and sees a therapist about his wartime traumas. His ex-wife (Karlina Grace-Paseda) is struggling with looking after their teenage daughter (Saskia Rose), worried about the boys she hangs out with and who’s not willing to take any relationship guidance from her. When the boyfriend (Daniel Davids) comes to pick her up his dealings in a little weed turn out to be a lot more than that ***spoiler alert*** as his father (Kevin Golding) runs the drug syndicate.

Written, directed and featuring former British Royal Marine Commandos the film has plenty of contact sequences that are in keeping with any Rambo movie but with a slightly more restrained tableaux, as a continuous stream of targets are disposed of with brutal efficiency – Andy’s nail gun rampage is the heartbreaking response of a bereaved father that is delivered with quiet indignation. Clearly not over his war experiences there are many flashbacks which he and his colleagues live through that require Sledge’s (Luke Solomon) blunt humour to lift the melancholic gloom.

Whilst the film’s plot and character storylines lack polish there’s no doubting when the speaking stops and the action begins you start to pay close attention. But in a strange way knowing the actors were soldiers kind of seems like cheating, after all they have a bit of an advantage over real actors when it comes to the shooting sequences.

SUNRAY: FALLEN SOLDIER is available on digital platforms and in select cinemas across the UK and North America from January 24th 2025. Available to pre-order in the UK HERE and USA HERE

Julian Gaskell @ thelanguageoffilm.com

Film: Sunray: Fallen Soldier

Director: James Clarke & Daniel Shepherd

Genre: Action, Crime

Stars: Tip Cullen, Tom Leigh, Luke Solomon

Run time: 1hr 55mins

Rated: 18

Rating: 3/5

Hard Truths

Pansy (Marianne Jean_Baptiste) is at odds with the world and is taking it out on her nearest and dearest in Mike Leigh’s latest social realism film about contemporary London family life. Shot in North West London, it is a domestic tragicomedy that’s bound to be a heartwarming tear jerker from the maestro director of improvisation.

In UK cinemas from 31st January 2025.

BFI London Film Festival / Photographer: JG

Wilding

Based on the best seller The Book of Wilding, this is the story of Knepp Castle’s 400 year old estate in the south-east of England, which sees a farming family seek an unprecedented departure from its agricultural and dairy tradition to a rewilding project of the land never seen before in the UK. Available on Blu-ray and DVD, Wilding was the highest grossing documentary of 2024.

Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree were brought up on the farmland of Knepp Castle and understand the significance and pride of its farming history but as Charlie inherits the estate he knows there are major problems working the land. Notoriously difficult to farm, the land is drenched in fertilising fungicides and herbicides, which have all but destroyed the soil, but instead of ploughing on with things, Charlie decides to listen to some of the expert advice he has sort and do something about it.

He spoke with experts like Tom Green, an oak tree specialist and an advocate for mycorrhiza’s – the symbiotic relationship between fungus and plants in the soil. Charlie knew he needed to do something to give nature a helping hand and his questions led him to Dr Frans Vera, whose nature reserve project in the Dutch polder lands of Oostvaardersplassen, had used the rewilding of animals to return nature back to its most primitive and effective state. Rather than battle against nature, Charlie needed to use the natural force of the animals’ footprints and behaviour to bring the fields back to life, in what had become an all but barren landscape. So, the farm equipment went up for sale, the fences came down and in their place came the wild horses, cattle, deer and pigs to run free on the land.

Isabella and Charlie recount the incredible transformations they witnessed, which wasn’t without struggle and opposition. Some highlights include the wild ponies taking on the thoroughbred horses at polo and the Tamworth pigs helping themselves in the marquee dining tent. It was interesting to see Charlie’s new role evolve from farmer to Darwinesque entomological classifier of species as they discovered the arrival of almost extinct animals and insects like the turtle dove and the rare Purple Emperor butterfly. The scale of the project, over 5 square miles, included the river, which they wanted to bring back to its natural meandering best too. Using machinery it would be 10 years in the making with the conservationist planning permission necessary. Expert Derek Bow said a beaver could do it in 6 months. In the end the beaver licence took 8 years, but by the emotion on Isabella’s face it was worth the wait.

The project wasn’t without opposition with people calling it pointless, it didn’t feed any mouths, they’d be wild boars running on the M25 or it spoilt the well groomed landscape of the British countryside. It did capture a corner of the nation’s heart though. This reconnection with nature, as seen during the pandemic, is something everyone benefits from but just how important the arrival of 19 new species of earthworms is likely never to be known.

The documentary is nostalgically put together with interviews over a period of time from Isabella and Charlie looking back at the journey they’ve been on. Reenactments are slotted in to fill in any gaps and aerial shots and time lapse filming show the transformation of the land.

There’s nothing wild about this documentary, but just a gentle reminder of the incredible capability of nature’s natural inter connectivity and our need to manage it as effectively as possible.

Julian Gaskell @ thelanguageoffilm.com

Film: Wilding

Director: David Allen

Genre: Documentary

Stars: Matthew Collyer, Rhiannon Neads, Isabella Tree & Jon Wennington

Run time: 1hr 15mins

Rated: PG

Rating: 3/5

Blu-ray: https://bit.ly/3YXVMfW

DVD: https://bit.ly/48Vc7Gy

That Christmas

Written by Richard Curtis and featuring some familiar voices including Brian Cox, Bill Nighy and Fiona Shaw supporting a cast of children, this is a Christmas animation with a family community message about a small UK seaside town and its inhabitants’ yuletide capers.

Now available to watch on Netflix. Rated PG.

The Contestant

A Japanese reality TV star is left naked in a room for more than a year tasked with filling out magazine competitions to earn food and clothing to survive. The Contestant will be hitting UK cinemas nationwide from 29th November.

Japanese TV is renown for its game shows where contestants have to do bizarre and crazy things usually with a masochistic tendency that have pushed the boundaries of TV and taste long before the well known reality shows of Big Brother and I’m a Celebrity, which have taken over television schedules.

The Contestant is the story of one such pioneering show that just about takes the biscuit. The leading Japanese TV show at the time was Denpa Shonen and their new show A Life in Prizes, made back in January 1988, was their next hit from revered producer Toshio Tsuchiya with its catch line, “for the first time in human history a man will attempt to live on prize competitions alone.”

The auditions see the ‘lucky contestant’ Nasubi pick out the winning raffle ticket and, with all the endearing mannerisms of a very happy Japanese man on TV, Nasubi joyfully remarks, “I must have used up a lifetime of luck”, to which the producer eerily replies, “you’ve just used it all up.” Producer Toshio Tsuchiya, a self proclaimed devil of TV, who even the editors send up by playing Darth Vader music when he appears on screen, knows Nasubi is in for a rough ride.

He is swiftly whisked away to a secret location (an apartment in Tokyo) and on entering the apartment he is told to strip naked. Somewhat reluctant, he is reassured that barely any of the footage would be seen and duly undresses, tentatively querying, “It’s not right?” Out of the 24 hours of daily footage only several minutes will be used for broadcast, so it wasn’t a complete lie.

And it isn’t right. He’s left in a room naked with only a table, a telephone, a rack of magazines, a pen and a stack of postcards plus a cushion which he can either sit on or use to cover his modesty – for over a year. No clothes, no food he’s soon under no illusion that he has to win prizes to survive. He’s not even sure whether he’s even on TV or at least has no idea that he is being watched by the shows 30 million viewers; whilst his parents’ last words ring in his ears after he left his home town of Fukushima – “Just don’t get naked.”

He soon embraces his nakedness in his apartment and plays up to the camera with such comedic humanistic qualities the audiences and the producers are loving him. Unfortunately for him, in his first 963 applications he wins nothing, so when he wins some dog food he inevitably eats it…the dog biscuits are so good he starts woofing to the camera in joy because they are more appetising than anything else he’s won.

Other firsts include having to cover up his genitalia with something on screen for broadcast censorship. Now synomonous with a p***s in text parlance, an aubergine is used because his name means egg plant.

It’s easy to get carried away with laughing at someone else’s predicament but the off camera interviews show a darker side to the entertainment because of the psychological impact on the individual, and the family and friends, all in the name of entertainment. Manipulating a wannabe comedian and actor who is willing to do anything for fame and success, it’s a twisted TV social experiment that really goes too far. But of course the more extreme suffering the contestant endures the more audiences want to watch and the more the producer wants to push things further.

The Contestant is a fascinating documentary about the early forays into reality TV in Japan that would change the TV landscape. Watching Nasubi’s path to stardom showed what he was prepared to endure and despite all the loving ridicule the turn of events that followed show a surprising story of human strength and courage on a grand scale.

Julian Gaskell @ thelanguageoffilm.com

Film: The Contestant

Director: Clair Titley

Genre: Documentary

Stars: Tomoaki Hamatsu, Jason Her, Toshio Tsuchiya

Run time: 1hr 30mins

Rated: 12A

Rating: 3/5