Handba' at Kirkwall, Orkney

A portrait of life in the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland.

A German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet.

In 1994, a masked man shot a waiter in the only Indian restaurant in the Orkney Islands. The murder remained unsolved for years, until new evidence emerged. Delve into one of Scotland's most controversial cases, now with powerful new testimony.

In Aurand’s signature diaristic form, roses in bloom, farm animals, Orkney landscapes, and scenes of the late filmmaker Margaret Tait having tea are rendered through expressive Bolex movements as well as the director’s active camera, and punctuated by abstract swaths of saturated and shifting colors. The film is an homage to Tait, whom Aurand visited in Orkney.

Three stories reflecting life in the Orkney Islands, two set in the past, and one in the present.

Captain Bill Torvald has retired to his quiet home in Orkney after fifty years at sea. When a young woman, Andrina, begins visiting him through the dark winter, he is grateful for her kindness and company. But as she starts to enquire about his past, he worries about the long-held secret he'll have to reveal to her.

The Lighthouse is a chamber opera with words and music by Peter Maxwell Davies. The scenario was inspired by a true story. In December 1900 a lighthouse supply ship called the Hesperus, based in Stromness, Orkney, went on its routine tour of duty to the Flannan Isles in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The lighthouse was empty - all three beds and the table looked as if they had been left in a hurry and the lamp, throughout, was in perfect working order, but the men had disappeared into thin air.