– Edinburgh International Film Festival have announced that American Pastoral, the directorial debut of Perthshire-born Ewan McGregor will have a special Edinburgh International Film Festival Gala at the Filmhouse, Edinburgh on Wednesday 2nd November. Director and lead actor McGregor will be in attendance to celebrate the film in his native country.

Mark Adams, Artistic Director at the EIFF said: “We are delighted to be working with Entertainment Film Distributors and Ewan McGregor on this special Edinburgh International Film Festival Gala of American Pastoral. Ewan is a great supporter of the festival, and talked with enthusiasm about making his directorial debut with the film when he was with us in 2015, so it is a real pleasure to welcome him and the film back to Edinburgh.”

McGregor has a deep relationship with the Edinburgh International Film Festival marking his first appearance in 1994 for Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave. He has since returned to the Festival on several occasions with films Velvet Goldmine (Todd Haynes, 1998), Young Adam (David MacKenzie, 2003), Perfect Sense (David MacKenzie, 2011) and most recently Last Days in the Desert (Rodrigo Garcia, 2015) when he also presented a sold-out ninety minute in-person Q&A event – a highlight of the Festival that year.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Phillip Roth novel, American Pastoral follows a family whose seemingly idyllic existence is shattered by the social and political turmoil of the 1960s. Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting 2, The Impossible, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) makes his directorial debut and stars as Seymour “Swede” Levov, a once legendary high school athlete who is now a successful businessman married to Dawn, a former beauty queen. But turmoil brews beneath the polished veneer of Swede’s life. When his beloved teenage daughter, Merry, disappears after being accused of committing a violent act, Swede dedicates himself to finding her and reuniting his family. What he discovers shakes him to the core, forcing him to look beneath the surface and confront the chaos that is shaping the world around him. American Pastoral also stars Academy Award® winner Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) as Dawn, Dakota Fanning (The Runaways, The Twilight Saga) as Merry, Emmy® winner Uzo Aduba (Orange Is the New Black), and Academy Award® nominee David Strathairn (Lincoln, Good Night, and Good Luck).

American Pastoral is a Lakeshore Entertainment production and is produced by Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi and Andre Lamal, with a screenplay written by John Romano (Lincoln Lawyer). It will be released across the UK and at the Filmhouse, Edinburgh on November 11th by Entertainment Film Distributors.