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The Environmentalism: The Film Man Of Aran

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The Aran Islands are known not only for their traditional folk culture but for their various well-kept artefacts and ruins and their beautiful land and seascape (Messenger 343). The people of Aran, over several years, have created a new type of earth that would be used for agriculture, produced from sand, seaweed and compost over a base of rock (Messenger 345).
The Islanders suffered the colonisation of the British, but their frustration was worse than for the mainland Irish people due to the harshness of their environment, the poverty and the near-starvation they were facing (Messenger 347). The movie Man of Aran justly represents the people of Aran in this struggle of man against nature and their will to survive.
This ethno-documentary Man of Aran seeks to show the depravity and the bleakness of the environment. The harsh climate and conditions are very well portrayed in this film. The manner in which the film was shot creates a feeling of helplessness against the environment. For instance, the emphasis was put on high cliffs overlooking the rough sea, forcing the inhabitants to climb these steep and dangerous cliffs. This illustrated the harshness of the surroundings and its desolation. The …show more content…

The Islanders are resourceful and resilient and this is shown through various scenes in the movie. The scene in which the family is creating their new soil from which to grow their potatoes illustrates both these qualities. The land is barren, it is bleak and should, therefore, not be able to produce any food. However, the people of Aran, in order to survive, created a new type of agriculture that combines algae, which is abundant around the island, sand and compost (Messenger 345). This illustrates how the people of Aran have survived for

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