Where You’re Meant to Be Film review: Arab Strap singer Aiden Moffat meditates on life, death, rivalry and the cultural importance of music
Where You're Meant To Be | Dir. Paul Fegan | ★★★★☆
This wistful documentary about a folk-music tour by former Arab Strap singer Aiden Moffat starts out as a road trip but becomes a meditation on life, death, rivalry and the cultural importance of music.
The voice-over, delivered in Moffat’s distinctive dry prose, is addressed to Sheila Stewart, an elderly Scottish folk singer, who Moffat visits to discuss some songs he’s updated for a modern audience. Her thoughts? “Disgusting”. You shouldn’t mess with history, she says.
Moffat perseveres, taking his bawdy ballads to various bemused Highland and island towns. Director Paul Fegan is happy to be led by the material, lingering over diversions including a Loch Ness monster boat tour and a heartbreaking afternoon with a bereaved farmer. There’s plenty of humour in Moffat’s dirty poetry, and it ends with an unexpected emotional whirlwind of triumph and loss.