DIRECTOR and film critic Mark Cousins has revealed that he went from a natural opponent of nationalism of all shades to being open to independence for Scotland.

Cousins, whose new film The Story Of Film: A New Generation is released this week, said he baulked at nationalism when he visited the Balkans during the collapse of Yugoslavia but that he has since changed his mind, thanks to the work of the SNP government.

“The word nationalism was a dirty word for me for a long time like many people on the left. I think what has happened is that the SNP government has cleansed that word for me.

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“I was in Bosnia. I took the Edinburgh Film ­Festival to Sarajevo during the siege so I saw that kind of ­nationalism which was the majority ­nationalism. I was brought up in ­Northern Ireland so we knew something about that. I’ve filmed in Iraq so I’ve seen a lot of ­negative ­versions of nationalism but the current nationalism that I’m seeing in the Scottish ­Government is very encouraging.”

Cousins also said he believed Scottish children were being denied a proper education in the visual arts.

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“In Northern Ireland, loads of young people study A-levels or highers in film. Not nearly as many people do it here. One of the things we need to improve massively is film education and more general visual-culture education in our schools.”

“A lot of people growing up not only in the posh bits of Scotland but the ­working class bits of Scotland, in Orkney, the ­Borders and all over the place will be ­innately good visual thinkers. If they are not exposed to cinema and shown that cinema is as important as poetry or ­music then maybe they’ll go off in a different ­direction and we won’t get to see their great movies.”