Projects in categories: Fiction

Synopsis

A reimagining of jazz legend Chet Baker's life in the 1960s. When Chet (with talent to burn and movie-star looks that have him dubbed the “James Dean of Jazz“) stars in a film about himself, romance blossoms with the African American female lead, the enigmatic Jane. Production is shelved when a vicious beating leaves Chet in a condition where he may never play music again. Jane challenges Chet to avoid self-destruction, overcome his drug addiction, and mount a musical comeback against all the odds. Official Selection Toronto 2015 - Special Presentations

Synopsis

A middle aged, middle class British couple are living like feral creatures in a camouflaged hole in the middle of a vast forest somewhere in France. Less than a year ago, they lost everything in a freak wildfire. Traumatised to the bone, the couple vanished and ended up where they are. She does not want to return to civilisation because only here she feels she can make amends. Her husband, on the other hand, finds the constant reminder of their misfortune increasingly unbearable. The couple’s relationship reaches breaking point and repressed emotions come bursting out to the surface. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

A timely thriller set in the world of remotely piloted aircraft warfare. A terrorist-targeting drone mission becomes a flashpoint when a civilian girl enters the kill zone. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

Based on the novel by J. G. Ballard: London, 1975. A slick apartment tower rises above the Thames, the beginnings of what will soon become the world's biggest financial hub. Dominating the landscape, it is simply called the HIGH-RISE... its address a mark of exclusivity. Its newest resident is Robert Laing, an ambitious young doctor utterly seduced by the lifestyle and cutting-edge technology the high-rise has to offer. He is introduced to the seedy underbelly of the high-rise by Wilder, a charismatic provocateur. The cracks in this apparently flawless society grow rapidly, and Laing is shocked at the depravity he sees. Life in the high-rise quickly descends into madness and violence, and Laing finds himself amongst the marauding hordes of bloodthirsty tenants who take over the building, floor by floor. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

London, 1997; the British music industry is on a winning streak. Britpop bands Blur, Oasis, The Verve rule the airwaves and Cool Britannia is in full swing. 27-year-old A&R man Steven Stelfox is slashing and burning his way through the music business, a world where 'no one knows anything' and where careers are made and broken by chance and the fickle tastes of the general public. Fuelled by greed, ambition and inhuman quantities of drugs, Stelfox lives the dream, as he searches for his next hit record. But as the hits dry up and the industry begins to change, Stelfox takes the concept of "killer tunes" to a murderous new level in a desperate attempt to salvage his career. Official selection Toronto International Film Festival 2015

Synopsis

The true story of the rise and fall of London’s most notorious gangsters, Reggie and Ronnie Kray, both portrayed by Tom Hardy. Together, the Kray Twins take over the city. But as their reign expands, power-struggles, fierce madness, and a woman diminishes their bond; the weak link that could cause their empire to collapse. A classic crime thriller from Academy Award® winner Brian Helgeland, taking us into the secret history of the 1960s and the extraordinary events that secured the infamy of the Kray twins. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - International premiere

Synopsis

London-set noir thriler based on Martin Amis' novel - Clairvoyant femme fatale Nicola Six has been living with a dark premonition of her impending death by murder. She begins a tangled love affair with three uniquely different men: one of whom she knows will be her murderer. Official Selection Toronto 2015

Synopsis

They say opposites attract. Milly (Toni Collette) is the woman who has everything: a successful career, a devoted husband, and two gorgeous kids. Her best friend is Jess (Drew Barrymore): Jess works in a community garden, lives in a boathouse with her boyfriend Jago, and desperately wants a baby. Friends since childhood, Jess and Milly can’t remember a time they didn’t share everything – secrets, clothes, even boyfriends; their differences are the glue that binds them together. That is until Milly is hit with life-changing news and needs Jess’s support more than ever. As Jess tries to balance her own life with being there for Milly it is only a matter of time before the pressure on their friendship becomes intolerable. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

In a bustling village near Addis Ababa, an Ethiopian girl becomes aware of strange new feelings that are both discomfiting and exciting. As her burgeoning sexuality begins to colour her experience of the world, it threatens to bring her into conflict with societal expectations. Official Selection Toronto 2015 - Short Cuts

Synopsis

In a rural Indian village called Ujhaas, four ordinary women begin to throw off the traditions that hold them in servitude, and question the status quo that favours men and ostracizes women for being educated and opinionated. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

Set in the early 20th century, 'Sunset Song' begins with the suicide attempt of a poverty stricken woman in Scotland, broken by repeated childbirths, who kills herself and poisons her twin babies. The story follows one of the woman’s surviving daughters, Chris Guthrie, who must manage the farm after her mother’s death, and, after her father, who has had a stroke, becomes bedridden. But when love comes to Chris, she must send her man off to the Great War and manage the farm in a land about to be changed forever by the onset of technology and war. How can we bear time, or subdue nature? We cannot. We can only endure... Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

A young boy in Gaza, Mohammad Assaf, dreams of singing in the Cairo Opera House with his sister and best friend, Nour. One day, Nour collapses and is rushed to the hospital where it is discovered that she needs a kidney transplant. Nour leaves Mohammad with a dying wish that someday, he will sing in Cairo. Escaping from Gaza to Egypt against unbelievable odds, Assaf makes the journey of a lifetime. Directed by Academy Award® nominee Hany Abu-Assad and based on the incredible true story of Mohammad Assaf, the Gazan wedding singer who became a worldwide sensation after winning 'Arab Idol' in 2013. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - World premiere