George MacKay and Rosy McEwen star in Glasgow-set indie drama Mission.

George MacKay and Rosy McEwen, two of Britain's most in-demand stars, have found a new sense of creative freedom on the set of their latest indie film, Mission.

The Liberating Experience of Making British Independent Film

Mission, directed by Paul Wright, is a Glasgow-set drama that follows the story of Dylan, a young Scot struggling to find meaning in his life. The film was shot mostly on location and features a mix of improvisation and scripted scenes.

For MacKay and McEwen, working on Mission was a departure from their usual big-budget studio projects. 'It was everything,' says MacKay of what drew him to the project. 'The freedom you get on these smaller sets is where I become a better actor.'

McEwen agrees, saying that the experience of making Mission was unlike anything she's done before. 'You'd have a slight context for the scene, but there was so much scope to play with,' she explains. 'The freedom of that I've never experienced before.'

The film's director, Paul Wright, has built a reputation for his innovative approach to filmmaking. His previous work includes the award-winning documentary Arcadia, which explores how he discovered narrative in archive material.

'Exploring how much of a story or a character we could create by almost making an archive of material, and then have him discover a lot of it in the edit,' says MacKay, 'was just, creatively, a really interesting idea.'

For McEwen, the experience was also new. 'You'd know exactly what was happening and what our characters were feeling,' she explains, 'but there was so much scope to play with.'

The film's world premiere is set to take place at the Edinburgh Film Festival, where it will compete for top honors.