NORTH-coast film fans will come face to face with swashbuckling pirates, talking pandas and the life story of a Formula One racing icon when Scotland’s only mobile cinema stops off in Bettyhill next weekend for the first time in nearly a decade.
Public demand has brought the Screen Machine – an 80-seat, air-conditioned modern mobile cinema – back to the Far North, with screenings of three films next Friday and Saturday.
The previous incarnation of the mobile service used to visit Bettyhill several years ago, explained projectionist, driver, cleaner and handyman Iain MacColl.
“We last visited Bettyhill almost 10 years ago with the previous Screen Machine, before the cinema opened in Thurso. Now that’s sadly closed there’s demand for a high-quality cinema experience in the area and we’ve had requests by e-mail, phone and in person, usually over in Durness, for a return of the Screen Machine,” he said.
“We used to have a great response from the locals, who attended come rain or shine. We once had a performance in gales of up to 70 mph – I decided it was safer to keep people inside the cinema than send them home.”
He added: “If it’s a success then we’ll seriously consider returning.”
It will be screening Johnny Depp’s latest blockbuster, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, animated comedy Kung Fu Panda 2 and the documentary praised by critic Mark Kermode as a must-see film of 2011, Senna.
Ron Inglis, director of Regional Screen Scotland, the not-for-profit organisation behind Screen Machine, said it was delighted to be back in the North, where it always receives a very warm welcome from film fans.
For more information visit www.screenmachine.co.uk
