The New Ten Commandments: A Response to a New Scottish Documentary

Not so much commandments as a series of human rights statements, this impressive (in both senses) documentary began misleadingly. I was unsure of the camera's sympathies for the 'ban the Queen from Scotland' campaigner, who ironically seemed to use the royal 'we' of his work, as he was always alone.

The very Scottish beginning seemed to have little to connect with non Caledonians, but the other issues were Scottish based but of universal importance. The Lockerbie air disaster, prostitution, suicide and torture each have a section - the latter in an unsettling abstract mix of crude sound and image which conveys the horror without showing any.

Prostitution is also carefully dealt with in a similar style: a black woman's voice narrates over images of an aircraft landing and a window, telling of how she was sold into sexual slavery; and we follow the Christian Salt and Light bus round Glasgow, offering drinks and friendship to women on the streets, although like the first piece, I was not sure where the filmmaker sat.

The quirky animation about privacy told the case of the unusual, if not distasteful affair with a bicycle - which was discovered by having their privacy intruded - but who did not deserve the same treatment as paedophiles and rapists. Irvine Welsh's piece was the hardest to gather a unifying theme about, but showed the myriad of images from recent decades in Scotland - from cloned Dolly the Sheep, Make Poverty History Marches of 2005, to the Leith berthing of the Royal Yacht, to the man who sat on death row for 20 years but when finally released, saved a girl's life.

Most memorable and evincing were the strands on the Muslim teenager convicted for investigating (but not participating in) terrorism on the internet last year, and his defence lawyer charged with contempt of court for criticising the legal system; and the dawn raids on the asylum seekers of Glasgow.

Mark Cousins and Tilda Swinton's finale was a 'I have a dream' speech for cinema, exhorting film to be exactly what this one does - challenging society and exercising freedom of speech. This was very successful in eliciting a response from viewers about the issues, but sadly it did not offer the audience a place or means to follow them up.