Return to the Edge of the World (1978) is film director Michael Powell's follow-up to his calling-card semi-documentary The Edge of the World, released in 1937. The success of that film led to a contract offer from Alexander Korda and eventually a partnership with another Korda recruit, Emeric Pressburger.

Powell long considered the first film to be his first truly personal film, so much so that he retained the rights to it. However, after its initial release in 1937, and subsequent releases after that, several minutes of the film started to get trimmed here and there. In 1940, the film stood at 74 minutes, but when it was re-released that same year, it was cut by a further twelve minutes. For decades this was the only version available.

It was partly for these truncations that Powell decided to make a two-part follow-up documentary, produced for the BBC, that would be used to bookend screenings of the shorter version of The Edge of the World. The resulting 22-minute film is Return to the Edge of the World. It features Powell, star John Laurie and producer Sydney Streeter (who served as a production assistant on the earlier film) returning to the beautifully desolate island of Foula and meeting the inhabitants of the island.

The film is a celebration and an epilogue of the '37 film. It celebrates both the specific hardships endured in 1936 while making the earlier work, and life on the island in general. Finally, in 1989 the National Film and Television Archive restored The Edge of the World to its general release length of 74 minutes.

Producer: Michael Powell, Sydney Streeter
Director: Michael Powell
Cinematography: Brian Mitchison
Film Editing: Peter Mayhew
Music: Brian Easdale
Cast: Michael Powell, John Laurie, Frankie Reidy, Sydney Streeter, Grant Sutherland.
BW&C-23m.

by Scott McGee