Ordinarily you’d expect a documentary about a golf course to go down a treat in the well-heeled seaside resort of Nairn, famous for its two first class links courses.
The film had its UK premiere in June at the Sheffield Documentary Festival where it won The Green Award. In July it won the Special Jury Prize at the Michael Moore film festival in the US. And it is now scheduled to be screened at select city venues around the UK, as well as Winnepeg in Canada, Bermuda and... Nairn.
The List magazine describes it as “arguably the most important film about Scottish environmental, land and identity rights to surface this year or any year.”
When first proposed, Trump's planning application was decisively rejected by the local authority. But in an unprecedented move the Scottish Government overturned the decision and gave the project the go-ahead – arguing the case for economic development and inward investment. Bulldozers rolled into action, as did the cameras...
Earlier this year we had a great audience for the classic film Local Hero. You’ve Been Trumped basically tells the same story except this is fact not fiction and almost on our doorstep. We’re really lucky to secure the film for our community-run cinema and we’re sure it will be of great interest to many.”
The film has also been acclaimed for its musical score, provided by Jonsi, the frontman of best-selling Icelandic band Sigur Ros. Check out the trailer on our video bar above...
You’ve Been Trumped is being screened by Cinema Nairn on Monday 3rd October at 8.30pm in Nairn Community & Arts Centre on King Street in Nairn. Tickets are priced at £4.00 (£3.00 for under-18s and loyalty card holders) and the 95-minute film is a Certificate 12.
Synopsis: In this David and Goliath story for the 21st century, a group of proud Scottish homeowners take on a celebrity tycoon. At stake is one of Britain's very last stretches of wilderness.
American billionaire Donald Trump has bought up hundreds of acres on the northeast coast of Scotland, best known to movie-lovers as the setting for the 1983 classic film Local Hero. And like the American oil tycoon played by Burt Lancaster, he needs to buy out a few more locals to make the deal come true. In a land swimming with golf courses, Trump is going to build two more – alongside a 450-room hotel and 1,500 luxury homes. The trouble is, the land he has purchased occupies one of Europe’s most environmentally sensitive stretches of coast, described by one leading scientist as Scotland’s Amazon rain forest. And the handful of local residents don't want it destroyed.
After the Scottish Government overturns its own environmental laws to give Trump the green light, the stage is set for an extraordinary summer of discontent, as the bulldozers spring into action. Water and power is cut off, land disputes erupt, and some residents have thousands of tonnes of earth piled up next to their homes. Complaints go ignored by the police, who instead arrest the film's director, Anthony Baxter. Local exasperation comes to a surreal head as the now “Dr” Trump scoops up an honorary doctorate from a local university, even as his tractors turn wild, untouched dunes into fairways.
Told entirely without narration, You've Been Trumped captures the cultural chasm between the glamorous, jet-setting and media savvy Donald Trump and a deeply rooted Scottish community. What begins as an often amusing clash of world views grows increasingly bitter and disturbing. For the tycoon, the golf course is just another deal, with a possible billion dollar payoff. For the residents, it represents the destruction of a globally unique landscape that has been the backdrop for their lives.
Funny, inspiring and heartbreaking in turns, You’ve Been Trumped is both an entertaining, can't-believe-it's-true tale and an environmental parable for our celebrity driven times. A moving score features music from jónsi, the internationally acclaimed musician and frontman of Sigur Ros. The film also offers a rare and revealing glimpse of the unfiltered Donald Trump, as he considers standing as a candidate for President of the United States.
