Filmed on the remote Shetland Island of Foula (renamed Hirta, the Norse word for death, in the film), The Edge of the World is a drama set against the death agonies of a culture doomed by failing agriculture and the advent of steam trawlers which have stripped the ocean beds.
The story of two feuding families is a classic plot intricately connected to the actual experience of people of the North Atlantic: the feud, which separates lovers and leads to exile and death, is over the issue of whether to evacuate or stay.
Magnificently photographed under the most arduous conditions, The Edge of the World contains the unique mixture of dramatic fantasy and documentary curiosity found in later Powell works: “...(A) growing knowledge of how people in remote places are and act...made me realize that the only sophisticated people are the lonely people who literally don't know where the next penny's coming from.... I distrust documentary. Always have.... The documentary boys are always saying it must be better because it's true: I question this assertion.... I have a poetic approach too.” --Michael Powell, interviewed by Kevin Gough-Yates