Coilin and Platonida

 Synopsis:

The basis of the film is a story of Nikolai Leskov entitled “Kotin and Provider and Platonida”. The story is set in a rural community at the turn of the century (in actuality this is Conamara, on the West Coast of Ireland). It concerns a young man, Coilin, who as a child is brought up as a girl, and later as a young man, adopts two children, and brings them up. It also tells the separate story of his cousin, Platonida, married to the son of a rich landowner and living in a large house… The film is about the process whereby we understand an image and how we derive knowledge from that image… Man is in constant search for illumination upon the whole predicament of his existence. How is such knowledge discovered and how does experience becomes a means of illumination?

Press:

Extracts from 'Synopsis for a Film' and 'A Means of Approach', 1974 by James Scott

Cinema Catalogue synopsis, 1976

Notes for LFMC Cinema screening, 1976 by James Scott

Monthly Film Bulliten, Great Britain, 1976 by Jonathan Rosenbaum

Time Out, London, 1976 by Deke Dusinberre

James Scott, 1978 by Steve Dwovskin

Time Out, London, 1989 Film Independents section