Kelly Gang star takes Glasgow

'True history of the Kelly Gang' is in cinemas now.

Fresh off his critically acclaimed performance in the 10x Oscar nominated “1917” George Mackay made a star appearance at the UK premiere of “True history of the Kelly Gang” last night at the Glasgow Film Theatre, as part of this year’s Glasgow international Film Festival.

The movie, which was met by a roaring applause from a sold-out audience last night, is set

in the wastelands of 1870’s colonial Australia at a time when the English stringently ruled, and the Irish were simply tolerated. It tells the compelling story of Ned Kelly; played by Mackay, who finds out he is derived from a line of Irish rebels called the Sons of Sieve, a rowdy and stiff-necked army of cross-dressing robbers immortalized for terrorizing their persecutors back in Ireland.

The film also stars Oscar winning-Hollywood titan Russell Crowe who plays stern and notorious bushranger, Harry Power who nurtures Ned Kelly through adolescence and on to an eventual future of derangement. Fuelled by desire and the unfair imprisonment of his mother, Kelly recruits a ferocious bunch of warriors from the Sons of Sieve to plot one of the most daring attacks of anarchy and defiance that the Australian government has ever seen.

The movie is an adaptation of a 2000 book of the same name by Peter Carey and it is directed by Justin Kurzel, his first movie since 2015’s Macbeth.

Mackay spoke about his personal reasoning for starring in the film, saying: “My dad is from Australia, but growing up in London I didn’t know much about his childhood till we had this conversation before the shooting of the film.”

Speaking of Ned Kelly, whose father was considered an outlaw and left his 12-year old son to be the man of the house Mackay added: “this perfect storm of knowing this man who is trying to suss himself out via the things he wants to hold on to and let go of from his dad because he himself wants to work out what he wants to say and who he is-coupled with the chance of working with director Justin Kurzel who I love, made me think that I had to do this movie.”

Mackay, who shot the film before the making of war epic, 1917 added: “This project means so much to me, as a process It was the most I’d ever committed to any film in a lot of ways. The level of commitment and what that teaches you about yourself made me pretty strung out by the end of it. we were towing the line further than we thought we would. I auditioned for 1917 about a month later and the physical hardships of this film really prepared me for the shooting of that.”

“True history of the Kelly Gang” had its UK premiere on day 2 of the Glasgow international Film Festival. It is just one of the 102 standout films who will have their UK premiere over the 12-day event in Scotland’s biggest city.

George Mackay doing a Q&A last night at the Glasgow Film theatre.

The festival will also feature the Scottish premiere of 39 films, the European premiere of 10 films and the worldwide premiere of 9 films, all of which are hotly anticipated. In total, the GFF will host over 380 film screenings, talks and special events.

Now in its 16th year, the festival is one of the UK’s largest and has grown massively since its 2005 inception. In its opening year the GFF saw 6,000 screen admissions compared to the 2019 edition which had grown to over 42,000 admissions. The GFF is run by Glasgow film, a charity which also runs The Glasgow Film theatre where the festival calls home. Other organisations that support the event are Screen Scotland, the BFI (award funds from the National Lottery), Glasgow Life and EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.

This year, in particular, the festival will put a spotlight on female filmmakers, with both women directed films opening and closing the 2020 gala. The festival will purposely end on international women’s day with a celebration of female in film; every film screened on the 8th March will either be directed and written by a woman or star a female lead.

Allison Gardner, Glasgow Film Festival Co-director, said: “There’s lots of great woman directors coming this year, because we are opening and closing with female directed films this is definitely a really good year for the festival. However, we’ve been championing women filmmakers for a number of years, we haven’t just jumped on this bandwagon, we have screened and premiered so many films by women over the years and quite rightly so.”

This year’s festival is aiming to get young people involved in film with the introduction of a 16-25 card which enables any young person to get standard price GFF tickets for just £6.50 with proof of age.

Gardner spoke of the incentive saying:“we really want to encourage more young people to explore the delights of the festival, there’s lots going on so £6.50 is really not a lot especially for films like ‘True History of the Kelly Gang’ that have been finely curated by our team at the film theatre.”

Another incentive for young people at this year’s festival is the “behind the scenes stand” which gives young people a look at the making of films. This year’s edition will feature Oscar-winning special effects wiz Chris Corbould who has worked on films such as “The Dark Knight”, “Spectre” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. Also featured at this exhibit are legendary film photographer Susan Wood and Paul Inglis who has been art director for some of the decade’s biggest films. The exhibition is free of charge but is ticketed.

Gardner added: “this is our way of giving back to our community and encouraging up and coming film-makers to come into the fold. It’s not just about the writers, actors and producers there are definitely more avenues into film that need to be known about.”

Also included in this years festival will be the 'Film Fanatics walking tour' a 2 hour walking tour around Glasgow with a focus on famous film locations throughout the city. The tour will also give information about the Glasgow Film Festival and the cities long standing history with film.

Rachel, a tour guide for the film fanatics walking tour said "I really hope the tour gives people an insight into how films are actually made. It's also just really fun."

Glasgow film festivals 2020 poster.

The Glasgow international film festival is running till the 8th March and you can purchase tickets for any screening or event from the Glasgow film theatre or online. “True History of the Kelly Gang” is in cinemas around the UK from today.