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Whisky film scoops jury prize at Cannes
Ken Loach’s whisky-tasting comedy The Angels’ Share has won the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Director Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty’s drama is about the how the lives of a group of city tearaways are turned around by an appreciation of whisky. The storyline in The Angels’ Share hinges on the discovery and auction of a cask of what is probably Scotland’s rarest single malt, Malt Mill.
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Scotland’s whisky trade provides the film’s backdrop, with the central characters experiencing tasting sessions, quizzes, tours around distilleries, auctions of rare whiskies, and of course drinking the stuff.
Loach filmed the £3.5 million feature across Scotland, using three distilleries for the action. Glengoyne for the exterior of the first distillery, Deanston for the interior while Balblair is the setting for the auction.
Whisky expert Charlie Maclean plays a dramatised version of himself, a member of a select band of whisky experts known as Masters of the Quaich.
MacLean is well used to public speaking, but he admitted to finding it daunting to film a scene in which he had to lead a tasting in front of an audience of extras.
As well as attending the film’s red-carpet premiere, MacLean led a whisky-tasting session in Cannes.