Skip to main content
The Hermit of Treig film image, director Lizzie MacKenzie

The Hermit of Treig

This event has passed

Canadian Premiere

We think of hermits as reclusive. That’s not Ken Smith. He’s lived off-the-grid for more than 40 years, in a wood cabin on Loch Treig in the Scottish Highlands, a 27 mile walk to the nearest postbox. But he’s a garrulous, personable chap if you find your way to his hearth, as filmmaker Lizzie MacKenzie did some years ago. Now in his 80s, Ken chats happily about his lifestyle (“If you want to get away from civilization, you need to learn to fish”), his love of nature, and the circumstances which brought him to this place. Beaten up by a gang of youths at 26, Ken was in a coma for several weeks. To his doctors’ surprise, he relearned to walk, talk, and write, but especially to walk. He explored the Canadian wilderness solo for two years. When he returned home, it wasn’t there; his parents had passed.

It may be one part eco documentary, but the emotional subtext is the rapport between this cheerful old man—a wonderful photographer incidentally—and young Lizzie, who befriends him and films him as his health begins to fail and hard choices are faced.

 

Audience Award, Glasgow 2022

Director
Cast

Ken Smith

Credits
Country of Origin

UK

Year

2022

Language

English

Links
18+
79 min
Award Winners Documentary Women Directors

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

The Outrun

Dir. Nora Fingscheidt
118 min

After living life on the edge in London, Rona (Saoirse Ronan) attempts to come to terms with her troubled past. She returns to the wild beauty of Scotland’s Orkney Islands — where she grew up — hoping to heal.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

Janet Planet

Dir. Annie Baker
110 min

For her first film as writer-director, Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Annie Baker gives us a lonely and imaginative 11-year-old, Lacey (Zoe Zigler) besotted with her single mom, Janet (Julianne Nicholson).

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Chef & the Daruma

Dir. Mads K. Baekkevold
90 min

The inventor of the California Roll, chef Hidekazu Tojo helped bring sushi to mainstream popularity through his renowned Vancouver restaurant, Tojo's. The Chef & the Daruma is a mouthwatering film touching on immigration, identity, and reinvention.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Monkey on a Stick

Dir. Jason Lapeyre
106 min

Monkey on a Stick is a feature-length documentary exposé of the criminal activity that took place in the Hare Krishna movement in America in the 1970s and ‘80s, adapted from the New York Times bestselling book.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Dahomey

Dir. Mati Diop
68 min

The return of stolen cultural artifacts to the Republic of Benin is the inspiration for Mati Diop's Berlin Golden Bear prize winner, which fuses dreamy metaphysics and incendiary political commentary on issues of restitution and self-determination.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Agent of Happiness

Dir. Arun Bhattarai & Dorottya Zurbó
94 min

In the Kingdom of Bhutan, the government makes a point of asking citizens about their level of contentment. This droll, poetical doc follows census-taker Amber as he takes villagers through the 148-question survey and contemplates his own life too.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Credits

Executive Producer

Robbie Fraser, Amy Hardie, Benjamin Taylor, Mark Thomas, Louise Thornton, Lisa Marie Russo, Jane Ray

Producer

Naomi Spiro, Lizzie MacKenzie

Screenwriter

Ken Smith

Cinematography

Lizzie MacKenzie

Editor

Kieran Gosney, Ling Lee

Original Music

Cameron McLellan, Mischa Stevens

Director

Lizzie MacKenzie headshot, The Hermit of Treig director

Lizzie MacKenzie

Lizzie MacKenzie is a self-shooting director from the Scottish Highlands. Her fascination with rebellious characters living life on the edge of society led her to spend seven years developing the trust of the protagonist of her debut feature, The Hermit Of Treig, which won the prestigious Audience Award at the 2022 Glasgow Film Festival. She was part of BFI’s showcase The Camera Is Ours: Britain’s Women Documentary Makers.