‘The Golden Spurtle’ review: Nourishing doc on a Scottish porridge-making championship

Dir/scr: Constantine Costi. UK/Australia. 2025. 75mins

There are simply three components required to make an ideal bowl of porridge: oats, water and salt. What makes the distinction between a run-of-the-mill bowl of beige slop and a top-tier providing with an opportunity of carrying off the Golden Spurtle – the coveted prime prize of the annual porridge-making competitors held within the Scottish highland village of Carrbridge – is a topic of heated debate, and of this pleasant documentary.

A deftly constructed crowd-pleaser with actual breakout potential

The ingredient record in Constantine Costi’s movie is equally stripped again, its appreciable appeal and humour comes from an appetising mixture of lovably eccentric characters, a sharp-eyed digital camera, a playful, bustling rating and the fantastic Scottish countryside. However like a hearty bowl of oat-based breakfast goodness, it is a movie that may go away you with an enduring glow.

This characteristic represents one thing of an sudden profession tangent for Greek-Cypriot-Australian director Costi. A multi-award-winning librettist and director, his work to this point has primarily been on the earth of opera together with the forthcoming ’Siegfried And Roy: The Unauthorised Opera’ for Sydney Competition. Costi additionally beforehand directed the 2020 mid-length opera movie, A Delicate Fireplace. The Golden Spurtle, which feels nearer to the artistry and affectionate observational humour of the BBC Trendy Instances documentary sequence than it does to the heightened drama of opera, could also be a departure for Costi, however is a deftly constructed crowd-pleaser with actual breakout potential.

The movie is blessed with a wealth of vibrant characters, however taking centre stage is Charlie Miller, head of the Porridge Committee and the chief organiser of the annual championship. A staunch character with a laconic, unflappable method, Charlie’s ardour for oatmeal runs deceptively deep. In his spare time, Charlie makes and sells spurtles (the normal porridge-stirring baton) to assist finance the competitors. However Charlie’s well being is failing and he has determined to step down from his porridge competitors duties. The 2023 competitors documented right here shall be his remaining 12 months on the helm.

Opponents embody a former two-time champion seeking to reclaim her crown; a likeable Australian taco chef; a terrifyingly intense well being firm CEO who has radical concepts in regards to the proportion of pinhead to regular oats in his recipe; a hipster porridge fan who brings his grandmother’s stirring secret to the pot; and an irascible native man, additionally a former winner, who’s satisfied that the spurtle is his to lose this 12 months. Whereas lots of the opponents guard their methods and recipes jealously, others generously share ideas – we study, for instance, that stirring the porridge the incorrect means (anticlockwise) will let the satan in. Many of the critical opponents, who come from as far afield as Zimbabwe, the Netherlands and the USA, are porridge traditionalists. However Charlie remembers, with a horrified chuckle, the notorious 12 months when one entrant requested a deep fats fryer as a part of their cooking tools.

Costi has enjoyable with the framing of his characters – Charlie, burly, bespectacled and critical, is regularly shot peering out of tight little home windows. One other character, a neighborhood legend for her washing-up providers, trundles into the body on a ride-on mower. However the unstaged impeccable comedian timing of the conversations and to-camera statements comes naturally.

In the end, it turns into clear that the precise competitors is nearly inappropriate (though the inclusion of a whiskey-tasting ingredient throughout the occasion provides spice and ensures that each one the important thing meals teams are lined). The primary focus of the image is attending to know the folks of Carrbridge, on this affectionate celebration of a neighborhood and a small city that determined to place itself on the map, with porridge. A movie to nourish the soul.