Red Road - View from Germiston

Here is the view from Germiston to the North, showing the famous Red Road flats. Although these flats are earmarked for demolition, a memory of them (whether welcome or not) will be kept in the forthcoming film Red Road Directed by Andrea Arnold and starring Kate Dickie as Jackie; Tony Curran as Clyde; Martin Compston as Stevie; Nathalie Press asApril; Andrew Armour as Alfred; and Paul Higgins as Avery.

"Jackie (Kate Dickie) works as a CCTV operator. Each day she watches over a small part of the world, protecting the people living their lives under her gaze. One day a man appears on her monitor, a man she thought she would never see again, a man she never wanted to see again. Now she has no choice, she is compelled to confront him."

I don't know if this film is 'typical' of Glasgow. Any cinema using Glasgow as a backdrop tends to portray the place as a rough, hard place, where gangs roam and gangsters rule supreme - a place where everyone is a hard drinker. Not everyone agrees with this image of Glasgow. There are some who would rather distort the truth and have everything set in Woodside etc, just to get another stab (no pun intended) at any accolade remotely resembling City of Culture.

All this thinking does is perpetuate the habit of having working class social history and representation being given the undeserved body swerve. Let us hail the efforts of those who want to continue showing Glasgow as a 'hard' place and the hard lives people STILL lead, whether or not it is their own fault, or the fault of their parents, teachers, social workers, middle class professionals, Glasgow City Council, Buckfast, Evo-Stick. Glasgow Celtic, Glasgow Rangers, The Orange Lodge, Mods, Rockers, GYTO, Shamrock, catholics, protestants, Irish Immigration, heroin, Lanliq, the Barras, the Broo, Andrew Carnegie, St Mungo and all other things that have helped or hindered the ordinary Glaswegian to succeed or fail

The workiing classes can certainly make history, but it is rarely written in their words

Moving on - I look forward to seeing this film, although I have no idea if it will be released in the cinema, or if I will have to wait until it is shown on channel 4. Whether or not I get to enjoy it on the Big Screen, I will probably end up buying it on DVD from ebay or Amazon. If anyone has seen the film, please post a reply to this, with your thoughts. Thanks