Directed by Neasa Ní Chianáin
Feature Documentary, Ireland, 80 minutes
Special Mention at Best Factual Programme, Celtic Media Festival, 2015
Reviews
‘Neasa Ní Chianáin crafts an evocative portrait of Neal MacGregor, a jewelry designer who turned his back on the world and ended his days in a stone shack on an inaccessible Irish island.’ Variety
‘…one of the more interesting documentaries of late.’ Film Ireland
Short Synopsis
An English artist died alone, aged 44, in a stone shed, where he lived without water, electricity or heating on a remote Irish island, leaving behind volumes of secret diaries. The Gaelic-speaking islanders on the rapidly depopulating island, knew little of Neal during the 8 years he lived there. Who was the Stranger? A film about memory and perception, an unusual portrait of a man, living on the edge, physically and mentally, and the island community he lived amongst.
Long Synopsis
When we are gone, what and how much do people remember of us? Neal MacGregor, an English artist who died prematurely on the small Donegal island of Inishbofin, left behind only three animal carvings (a salmon, a lobster and a seagull), some dairies and volumes of beautifully illustrated bird notebooks in the stone shed, where he lived. He ate crabs he caught, or rabbits he trapped.
The Irish-speaking islanders knew little of Neal during the 8 years he lived there. Who was this “Stranger”? The director puts together the jigsaw, aware of the many missing pieces, the contradictions, and that fine line between reality and myth. This is a documentary about memory and perception, a journey to capture an unusual portrait of a man, living on the edge, both physically and mentally, and the insular Irish-speaking island community he lived amongst.
Was Neal MacGregor insane, traumatised, enlightened? How was he seen by the Inishbofin islanders, and what memories do they have of him – this atheist Englishman who moved to their island, a very Catholic and republican place, where everybody else was leaving because of the hardship of island life? Was he a British spy recording gun-running shipping routes of the IRA, as some islanders thought? Was he trying to take control of the island, as others thought? What did they really know about him?
Through research, the director found out what the Donegal islanders never knew. Neal studied art at a prestigious college outside London. It was 1964. He was a great guitarist and college Social Secretary, introducing students to the music of Bert Jansch, The Moody Blues and others. It was the Sixties. Drugs were plentiful. Sexual and political revolutions were erupting across the West. In the late ‘70s Neal became part of a wave of art émigrés fleeing the burnt-out scene of big cites.
Perhaps Neal came to the West of Ireland in search of artistic purity and an aesthetic unencumbered by technical trickery. He began his final retreat, spending his last years alone, carving on stones, building boats, painting, repairing jewelry and telling no-one of his previous life. And then he died suddenly.
The creative vision of The Stranger relies on the idea of jigsaw, of finding traces, bringing in mystery and intrigue, playing around with different layers of information, building a tapestry of memories. The style is both investigative and atmospheric, captured through the haunting landscape shots of Inishbofin, reconstructed impressionist details of the artist, Neal MacGregor’s life on the island, and archive mixed with interviews with those who knew him. ‘
The Stranger is a mystery, a slowly unraveling dark tale that reveals a unique and fascinating character. It is not a conventional portrait of an artist, but rather an evocation of the spirit of a man through memory, diaries and his own thoughts and drawings.
The Stranger had it’s European Premiere at Locarno Film Festival, Critique de Semaine, 2014. It also screened at Dok Leipzig, Planete Doc Review in Poland, Galway Film Fleadh, Dingle Film Festival and did a festival outreach run at art house venues around Ireland including the IFI in Dublin. It will be screened on RTE 1, 15th of Sept @ 22.15pm.
Developed through the EU MEDIA programme
Funded by The Irish Film Board and RTÉ Television
Main Cast & Crew
EDWARD HUMM as Neal MacGregor, CHLOE HUMM as Mary McFadden
Directed by Neasa Ní Chianáin, Produced by David Rane, Edited by Mirjam Strugalla, Cinematography by Tristan Clamorgam, Sound by Guilluame Beauron, Written by Neasa Ní Chianáin & Maria Gasol, Music composed by Eryck Abecassi