Mossmorran and the Kingdom

Life in Fife is changing, thanks to North Sea gas.

It's the 1980s and Scotland is changing, as King Coal ebbs and the North Sea flows. The year this film was made, a liquid gas fractionation plant opened at Mossmorran, near Cowdenbeath, Fife, at the end of the line from the Brent oilfield. It was a joint venture by Shell and Esso who co-sponsored the film, depicting Fife's diversity - ranging from mining town Denbeath to historic St Andrews.

An absorbing documentary account of industrial change, this film also fits a classic public relations template, being one of many made over the decades by oil and related industries when entering new territory - paying tribute to the place, its people and history and suggesting that local communities will profit from the industry's presence more than they'll be disrupted by it. The film argues that while the Mossmorran development will see many contractors coming in, local businesses and workers will also benefit. Note the reassuring use of Fife's widely respected council leader Bert Gough as the film's central figure, and scenes showing public consultation. From a filmmaking point of view, though, the most effective moments are the brief visual passages, set to a synthesiser soundtrack, in which the camera beholds the eerie structures and landscapes spawned by the new kingdom of hydrocarbons deep in the ancient Pictish kingdom of Fife.