From award-winning documentary filmmaker Paul Sng (Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché, Tish), Irvine Welsh: Reality Is Not Enough is an illuminating and immersive portrait that offers a rare glimpse into the mind of one of Britain’s most provocative writers — at work, at play, and at a crossroads in his life.
“Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting is an era-defining novel. I read it for the first time in March 1996, immediately after watching Danny Boyle’s remarkable film version. These combined experiences changed my life. I was living in London and had zero interest in heroin. But I related strongly to these rebellious and hedonistic outcasts from Thatcher’s Britain and its New Labour ‘Cool Britannia’ remix. It articulated the urgency of youth and how it feels to be an outsider to society. I felt seen.
25 years later, now living in Edinburgh, I went to see Todd Haynes’ The Velvet Underground, along with Irvine. Afterwards, I asked him if he’d ever make a documentary about his maverick life. Already I could see a film where we would delve beyond his outspoken and hedonistic public persona, speaking truth to power. I wanted to show the thoughtful polymath and loving husband, who took inspiration from Evelyn Waugh and acid house music and believes ‘we only learn through failure’. Reality Is Not Enough is that film.”
– Paul Sng, Director
Welsh stands at a pivotal moment. Having sold over six million books worldwide and enjoyed the success of several film adaptations, he now confronts his own mortality. With his hedonistic days waning, he chooses to push boundaries once again — this time by exploring consciousness through a psychedelic DMT trip.
Through this unique lens, the film charts a brutally honest self-examination: his Edinburgh childhood, immersion in 70s London counterculture, the explosive success of Trainspotting and Filth, and the fame that both rescued and consumed him. And still one question looms large: what comes next?
“This is a documentary about a writer reflecting on his life for the first time. Soren Kierkegaard’s idea ‘Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards’ has formed a creative mantra for the film. Irvine’s DMT trip is our way into his personal reflections on mortality, place & belonging, hedonism, class & politics, creativity, love & family.
Observational footage of his daily life and excerpts from his body of work are interwoven with ‘memory space’ material — shot in a post-industrial warehouse close to where he grew up. Within this darkened inner sanctum of uneven walls, Irvine (literally) roams through his memories, viscerally experiencing a collision of image and language, as he provides intimate commentary on his life, work and the key moments that have opened his heart and soul.”
– Paul Sng, Director
The documentary features powerful readings from Welsh’s novels, narrated by Liam Neeson (Taken, Batman Begins, Star Wars), Maxine Peake (The Theory of Everything, Shameless), musician Nick Cave, Ruth Negga (Ad Astra, Passing), and Stephen Graham (The Irishman, Boiling Point).
Fresh from winning Best Scottish Film at the 2025 The List Festival Awards, Irvine Welsh: Reality Is Not Enough cements its place as one of the year’s most compelling works of autobiographical cinema.
Paul Sng is a bi-racial British Chinese filmmaker based in Edinburgh whose work centres on people who challenge the status quo. He has directed six feature documentaries, including Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché (winner of BIFA 2021 Best Documentary and BIFA Raindance Discovery Award), Tish (Sheffield DocFest 2023 Opening Gala), and now Reality Is Not Enough (Edinburgh International Film Festival 2025 Closing Gala). In 2022, he was named a BAFTA Breakthrough Artist.
In UK & Irish Cinemas from 26th September
