Welsh Connections

Trainspotting is a 1996 British independent black comedy drama film directed by Danny Boyle, with Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle and Kelly Macdonald in her film debut. It is written in English and Scots. Based on the 1993 novel by Irvine Welsh and inspired by the stage production of the same name, the film was released in the United Kingdom on 23 February 1996. The film follows a group of heroin addicts in an economically depressed area of Edinburgh, led by a mentally ill and violent psychopathic narcissist who allows their life of crime, and their passage through life. Themes in the film are drug addiction, and urban poverty and squalor in Edinburgh. Trainspotting was released to critical acclaim, and is regarded by many critics as one of the best films of the 1990s. The film was ranked tenth by the British Film Institute (BFI) in its list of Top 100 British films of the 20th century. In 2004, the film was voted the best Scottish film of all time in a general public poll. A 2017 poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out magazine ranked it the tenth best British film ever. A sequel, T2 Trainspotting, was released in January 2017 and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing through its TriStar Pictures label.