Edinburgh Film Festival To Close With ‘Reality Is Not Enough’

This year’s Edinburgh Film Festival (EIFF) will close with Reality Is Not Enough, the latest documentary feature from Paul Sng. 

The film is an exploration of Trainspotting author, Irvine Welsh.

The film’s synopsis reads: Irvine Welsh is at a crossroads in his life. After finding huge success with several film adaptations and six million books sold worldwide, he has become acutely aware of his mortality. Now, with his hedonistic days drawing to a close, the outspoken author takes a wild journey that explores the boundaries of consciousness through a hallucinogenic trip.

The doc is built around intimate observational footage, rare archive film clips and readings from Welsh’s novels narrated by Liam Neeson (Batman Begins), Maxine Peake (The Theory of Everything), musician Nick Cave, Ruth Negga (Ad Astra) and Stephen Graham (Adolescence).

Reality Is Not Enough was co-financed and produced by Edinburgh-based production company LS Films, with the support of Screen Scotland, and with Sarah Drummond serving as Executive Producer. Kaleidoscope will release the film in the UK. 

“We were so impressed by this brilliantly immersive and fascinating documentary about iconic Scottish writer Irvine Welsh,” Paul Ridd, CEO and Festival Director of EIFF, said in a statement. “Director Paul Sng’s refreshingly unusual and highly cinematic approach perfectly fits his subject, a man who has spent an entire career refusing to be pinned down, always surprising us with works of profound impact, rawness, and grace. We could not think of a better way to round off our Festival than with this terrific film.”

This year’s EIFF runs from 14-20 August. 

Sng added: “I’m completely delighted that Reality is Not Enough has been chosen to close this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival. When I read Trainspotting as a teenager in London back in the nineties, I had no idea I would one day live in the city where the book is set, let alone make a film with its author, Irvine Welsh. Having our World Premiere in our home city is a huge honour and we’re looking forward immensely to sharing the film with the EIFF audience.”