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FEATURES: REVIEWS

Elizabetta Girelli reviews the film

Local Heroes: You’ve Been Trumped Director Anthony Baxter mortgaged his home to make the documentary You’ve Been

Trumped, and his film reverberates with a sense of commitment, obstinacy, and sheer courage. Set on the Aberdeenshire coast, You’ve Been Trumped tells the extraordinary tale of how a unique piece of Scottish wilderness was bought, destroyed, and turned into a golf course by American tycoon Donald Trump. Not without meeting opposition, though: the film charts the dogged resistance of the people caught up in Trump’s actions, the Scottish residents whose world was literally torn apart by bulldozers. Led by farmer Michael Forbes, whose property is dismissed by Trump as ‘a slum’, these local heroes face their grim situation with humour, pluck, and an utter refusal to give up. Their struggle is not simply against Trump, however: in an increasingly sinister plot, the film shows the wider context in which the American billionaire carries out his destruction. The events documented in You’ve Been Trumped can be directly traced to the Scottish government, who choose to dismiss their own environmental policy and sell Trump a fragile ecosystem, the very last of its kind in the UK. Once Alex Salmond’s cabinet seals that decision, the locals are totally abandoned to their fate, as neither the council nor the police move a finger to help them. It is the terrible revelation of this abandonment, of the authorities’ reverence for money against humanity and environment, which ultimately has spectators glued to their seats. Meantime, very dark humour is provided by Donald Trump’s outrageous statements: he claims the dune landscape he’s destroyed needed ‘stability’, promises untold numbers of local jobs that never materialise, and forgets if

the land he has bought is on the East or West coast of Scotland. Yet despite these occasions for bitter merriment, the film’s overall mood is both tragic and scary: watch Trump cut off power and water supplies to residents for ten days, while police and local authorities refuse to intervene. Watch Trump’s bulldozers dump tonnes of newly-dug earth outside the residents’ windows, so that they end up living in a kind of trench. Watch director Anthony Baxter being arrested by the Grampian Police, for the ‘crime’ of interviewing witnesses. Finally, in a twist of such creepy surrealism to befit a novel by Franz Kafka, watch Donald

Trump being awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University. The justification for the doctorate? Trump’s ‘services to Scotland’. In a film that allows characters to speak for themselves, with no intrusive narration, the plight of Trump’s victims takes on epic proportions, offering the audience an almost primeval story of good versus evil. This is perhaps the greatest achievement of You’ve Been Trumped: its combination of the intensely local and the overwhelmingly global. The story of a few Scots against Donald Trump is also a much bigger tale; it

is the timeless confrontation between ordinary citizens and the greedy, power-mad people who seemingly rule the world. Spectators don’t need to be Scottish, or even to have first-hand knowledge of Scotland, to identify with Michael Forbes and his neighbours. This film will move and infuriate you in turns, yet it will also give you some hope: ordinary people can be heroic, whether they are farmers, artists, filmmakers, or elderly ladies. And who knows: it may be possible, after all, that the Donald Trumps of society will not have the last word.

See also Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youvebeentrumped

The events documented in You’ve Been Trumped can

be directly traced to the Scottish government, who

choose to dismiss their own environmental policy and sell

Trump a fragile ecosystem, the very last of its kind in the UK

Laura Sneddon reviews

Hamish McHamish of St Andrews: Cool Cat About TownBy Susan McMullanPublished by Black & White Publishing, 2012. Available at Waterstone’s and all good bookshops price £8.99 hardback.

St Andrews is many things to many people – home, university town, golfing paradise, historical city – a place of Royal romance and windswept beaches. But with no disrespect meant towards any of these wonderful badges of honour, there is perhaps one individual in St Andrews who has risen to a greater fame than any of the others: Hamish.

The handsome redhead is often to be seen perusing the shops at his leisure, stopping to make idle chat with the locals, students, and visitors alike, with no prejudice given unless, perchance, you have some manner of fish upon your person. Hamish McHamish of St Andrews: Cool Cat About Town is a portfolio of the dashing feline gentleman, with photographic contributions from his various benefactors and swooning fans, all told by the man himself. Or at least as best as Susan McMullan could translate for him.

The book itself is a lovely-looking little hardback, quite at home with the various other humour- based gift books that descend on our shelves at this time of year, and the decision to have the text told from Hamish’s

voice is ingenious. With a foreword from his owner, who still hunts him down for his yearly vet visit, Hamish launches into his life story, beginning with the rather adorable baby pictures which certainly put any rumours of there having been multiple Hamishes to rest! The sheer number of photos within the book is testament to the size of his fan base; this is after all the cat with some 3000 Facebook friends. McMullan is clearly a fan herself, as evidenced by the great amount of work she has put into the production of this book, and notes that the response to her collecting his photographs was overwhelming. Everyone who has contributed a photo towards the book is listed in the credits at the back of the book, and receive exclusive Hamish hugs for their efforts.

Hamish even takes the reader on a small tour of St Andrews, though for reasons of cat politics he visits some spots via his computer. Still, his favourite shops are given a shout out (for their chair comfort rating and tuna availability no doubt), while some candid shots reveal the aftermath of partying all night with students, and overall Hamish has

provided both tourists and locals alike with a lovely and more personal look at the town. That double appeal is precisely where the book has really found its own success story, with the inclusion of photographs from such a wide variety of fans giving the title a real sense of love for our furry friend – after all, there can be few of us who have met Hamish who have not snapped a quick photo of our very own local superstar.

Already the book is well on its way to outselling JK Rowling, Jamie and Nigella this season, with a price-point that quite possibly guarantees its place in many a Christmas stocking and gift bag. To have a bestselling book is really no less than Hamish McHamish of St Andrews deserves, and will maybe even see his celebrity status expand further into the world. So make sure that you pick up his book, give him a scritch when you see him, and that cat treats are always welcome!

Hamish’s Mum: “If he could speak, I don’t think he would say, ‘I belong to St Andrews’, but rather, ‘St Andrews belongs to me’!”