Karen Gillen, who this year finally made the leap from actress to actress-writer-director with the film The Party’s Just Beginning, has been speaking about her inspirations for the project.

She told Deadline at the Tribeca Film Festival: “The whole story is based on a statistic I read that the suicide rate in the Highlands of Scotland are significantly higher among young men than in the rest of Scotland. I was like, ‘That’s a strange statistic’, because I grew up there and it’s so idyllic and picturesque and beautiful. Why do we have this dark fact looming over us?

“I took some inspiration from people I grew up around or people who I’d just heard about, and then I just used my imagination to piece everything together.”

The writing process started six years ago, she added, and it was her first ever screenplay. After completion it took five years to secure financing and, ironically for such a Scottish film, funds ended up coming from and American company.

The Party’s Just Beginning made its debut as part of the 2018 Glasgow Film Festival, and we were lucky enough to see it. You can read our 4-star review here.

Watch the fill video here.