Falling Into Place: The new Scottish love story created by a German screen star after Hogmanay in Edinburgh

Aylin Tezel wrote script in Edinburgh cafes and her B&B

Aylin Tezel and Chris Fulton star in Falling Into Place, which will get its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival on 2 March. Picture: Julian Krubasik

When German screen star Aylin Tezel arrived in Edinburgh in the run-up to Christmas to help make a music video she had never set foot in Scotland before.

By the time the actress left more than a month later she had written the story for what would become her first ever feature film as writer and director, as well as one of its stars.

Now Falling Into Place, the romantic drama that took shape in several Edinburgh cafes and would eventually take Tezel to the Isle of Skye, is a major made-in-Scotland highlight of the Glasgow Film Festival 20th anniversary line-up.

Aylin Tezel and Chris Fulton star in Falling Into Place, which will get its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival on 2 March. Picture: Julian Krubasik

The film sees Tezel and Chris Fulton - the Scots actor whose screen credits include Bridgerton, Outlander, Clique and Outlaw/King - play two troubled thirty-somethings who meet briefly over a winter weekend on the Hebridean island, but are abruptly parted before returning to their separate lives in London.

The origins of Falling Into Place, which gets its UK premiere in Glasgow on 2 March, can be traced back to New Year's Day in Edinburgh six years ago.

Tezel woke up after spending Hogmanay in the city with an overwhelming desire to write about Ian and Kira, the characters she had originally dreamt up several months previously while walking through a London park with a friend.

She recalled: “We were talking about our dreams and I told her that my dream was to make a feature film as writer and director.

Chris Fulton and Aylin Tezel star in Falling Into Place, which will get its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival on 2 March. Picture: Julian Krubasik

"I sat down and tried to write a scene within half an hour. Straight away, I had the voices of a man and a woman in my head. They talked and they talked, and at some point he tried to kiss her, but she said to him: ‘We’re not there yet.’ I thought about who they could be and what could happen to them.

“The two characters just stayed with me for a few months. I knew I wanted to write a script, but had never done it before. I didn’t really know what to do.

“I was on my own in Edinburgh on New Year’s Day. It was very cold and windy, but when I went outside for a walk I saw a double rainbow and thought to myself: ‘I feel like today’s a special day.’ I sat down in a cafe and started writing. It just happened from there.

"I was supposed to be staying in my B&B for a couple of nights, but I asked if I could stay for another two and kept doing that for four weeks. I would go out to write in cafes during the day. When I came back in the evening I just kept on writing. If I thought about watching a film I would think ‘I’d rather watch my own film.’ I’d write another one or two scenes then go to bed. It made me so happy.”

Chris Fulton and Aylin Tezel star in Falling Into Place, which will get its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival on 2 March. Picture: Julian Krubasik

Tezel, whose previous screen roles included spy thriller TV series X Company and the airline hijack movie 7500, decided against telling anyone she was writing her own feature film while she wrestled with the story.

She said: “I didn't want to put any pressure on myself or for anyone else to have an opinion on it. I wanted the story to be as pure and innocent as possible. I loved the fact that something was developing in me and no-one knew it yet.

"I wanted to write the script exactly the way that I would like to watch a film. I had a slight stubbornness about it. I just wanted to know who Kira and Ian were, and wanted to know about their story. I just wanted to watch the film I was writing."

It would take another four years for filming on Falling Into Place to get underway, with efforts to secure funding delayed by the pandemic.

Aylin Tezel has written, directed and stars in Falling Into Place, which will get its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival on 2 March. Picture: Julian Krubasik

However Tezel eventually secured backing in both Germany and Scotland, including £230,000 from Screen Scotland to help pay for an extensive shoot in Glasgow, where locations stood in for London, as well a week of filming on Skye, which was chosen after a location-hunting road trip around the country with a friend.

She said: “The story started in Scotland because that's where I wrote it. I knew these two lonely souls would meet in a rather remote place, where Ian was from, and for them both to be unsuccessful artists trying to find their luck in London.

“I had only written in the script that the story would start in ‘a Scottish coastal town.’ But it was pretty clear from the moment we arrived on Skye that we’d the right place. There was just something magical about the light.

“We had all the seasons in a day, including snow, even though it was April, but we actually managed to shoot two amazing moments before it melted.”

For Tezel, who lives between Berlin and London, the themes of love and loss she explores are “very personal.”

She said: “I just find it so deeply interesting why human beings connect, the way they connect, and how the way that they love and are loved back influences what they do in their lives. All of these things shape us. I think I’ll find them interesting for the rest of my life. I thought I would give these characters all of my questions.

Aylin Tezel has written, directed and stars in Falling Into Place, which will get its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival on 2 March. Picture: Julian Krubasik

“It's become so hard for us to love ourselves. Social media and dating apps have changed our whole ideas of love and connections, and how we feel about ourselves. It’s become like a game. For a lot of people, the connections are quite fleeting now.

"Kira and Ian are very different people. Kira is someone who watches and observes, and lets people pull her into adventures. She is a little bit more held back. Ian is so fiery, funny, charming and performative. The thing they share is that they’re really both very lonely. They have a deep longing for love, but don’t love themselves very much. What makes it special when they meet is that they’ve nothing to lose.”