The Edge of the World is a 1937 British film directed by Michael Powell, loosely based on the evacuation of the Scottish archipelago of St Kilda.

The film is the story of the depopulation of one of the isolated outer islands of Scotland as, one by one, the younger generation leaves for the greater opportunities offered by the mainland, making it harder to follow the old ways of life there.

The yachtsman (played by the director, Michael Powell) finds it strange that the island looks deserted, when a book he carries mentions that it should be inhabited.

Robbie tells Ruth and Andrew that he is engaged to a Norwegian girl called Polly, whom he had met in a brief period working outside Hirta, and intends to announce that to the other islanders on the next day at the men's assembly, the "parliament".

Andrew opposes that and, given the divided opinions and lack of consensus in the "parliament", they decide to settle the issue with a race up a dangerous cliff without safety ropes.

Ridden with guilt and shunned by Ruth's father, who will now not give permission for their marriage, Andrew decides to leave the island for Lerwick on the Shetland Mainland.

Andrew arrives on Hirta on the trawler amid a fierce gale, just in time to take Ruth and his newborn daughter to the mainland, as the baby is dying from diphtheria and needs a life-saving tracheotomy.

They had to stay there for quite a few months and finished up with a film which not only told the story he wanted but also captured the raw natural beauty of the location.

He detailed how the cast and crew were selected and how they lived and worked on the island at a time when there were no flights there, only occasional radio communication.

In 1978, director Michael Powell and some of the surviving cast and crew went back to Foula to re-visit the island where they had made the film that changed their lives.