Premature opens in cinemas next Friday, carrying a Glasgow-centred romcom onto the big screen despite what the production calls a microscopic budget. The film, written and directed by Kevin Walls, stages its story amid recognisable local sites, from Kelvingrove Art Gallery to red sandstone tenements and city centre pubs, and includes several days of filming inside an east end flat.
Walls said the flat shoot lasted around nine days. "We shot quite a bit in a flat in the east end, maybe about nine days there," he said, reflecting the production’s focus on local interiors as much as public landmarks. That choice was partly aesthetic, and partly practical, with Walls adding, "The locations were tricky because we didn't have any money," and describing how the crew relied on persuasion and goodwill from venue owners.
The story follows mismatched flatmates Cameron and Eilidh, played by James Rottger and Elle Watson, whose drunk one-night stand forces them to confront the prospect of parenthood. Watson, who grew up in Scotstoun, welcomed the decision to film on home turf, saying Glasgow too often appears on screen as gothic and gritty. "It's great having it on screen as a bright and funny place, with people falling in love there," she said.
Rottger framed the film as a warmer portrait of the city. "The film Kevin has written shows Glasgow in a warm light, literally and figuratively. The red sandstone flats, Kelvingrove, the pubs, it’s all there," he said. He also described the central emotional thrust as two characters losing the illusion of control: "This whole film is about two people being chucked out of any sense of control they thought they had."
Premature is Walls’s first feature after a career in short films and adverts. He balanced lecturing and editing football highlights for YouTube channels, and directed the proceeds back into the production. A Kickstarter campaign supplemented other funds and helped secure a theatrical release, a goal Walls insisted on. "Cinema-going is really important to me, and through sheer determination I was going to get this on a cinema screen too, as it deserves to be seen there," he said.
With modest financing and local locations, the film aims to entertain while staking a claim for Glasgow itself as a setting rather than a stand-in. Audiences will be able to judge that framing when Premature arrives in cinemas next Friday.
