Projects in categories: Fiction

Synopsis

Shocked by the death of a friend, three men try to take their lives in hand. But how far will they go?

A gay man falls under the spell of a young woman. How far will his heart betray him? A happily married man encounters a wonderful french woman at the funeral - and says too much. Should he meet her again? A young man returns after years travelling, searching for that elusive 'something' in his life, and finally finds the woman of his dreams in his own back yard. But will he have to lose his best friend for love?

Three stories intermingle, intertwine and glance off each other to reveal surprising perspectives in this sharp look at the human comedy of love.

Synopsis

Set in the late 1920s, The Luzhin Defence tells the story of a shambling unworldly chess Grand Master (John Turturro) who arrives in the Italian lakes to play the match of his life and unexpectedly finds the love of his life.

Discovering his prodigious talent in a boyhood overshadowed by his parents' failing marriage, Luzhin's lyrical passion for chess has become his refuge and rendered the real world a phantom.

Already matched up by her family to the very suitable Comte de Stassard, when Natalia (Emily Watson) meets Luzhin she is drawn to the erratic genius and offers him a glimpse outside of his chess obsession. But it is a world he is not equipped to deal with, and his two worlds collide to tragic effect.

Synopsis

The year is 1927. A little Jewish girl Fegele, lives happily with her father, a cantor, and her grandmother in a Russian village. But with the ever-present threat of persecution, her father leaves for America to find work intending to send for his family. Soon after he leaves, violence engulfs the village. Fegele is bundled off with some fleeing villagers who hope to get to America, but she ends up on a boat to England.

Fegele is re-named Suzie, sent to a Christian foster home and to a school where she is forbidden to speak Yiddish but learns to sing. Ten years later she leaves England for Paris, where she becomes a chorus girl and befriends an ambitious blonde Russian dancer, Lola. She starts to save, hoping to earn enough money to pay for her passage to America. Together Lola and Suzie find jobs in the new opera company of impresario Felix Periman.

Suzie falls in love with gypsy horse-handler Cesar, while Lola falls for Dante Dominio, an arrogant Italian opera singer. When the German army invades Paris, Dante, with Lola at his side, immediately collaborates with the Nazis, while Suzie joins Cesar and his band of gypsy musicians.

The Nazis have plans to round up the Jews and Gypsies. When Dante betrays Suzie, Lola decides to leave him. She tells Suzie that she will help them both get out. Suzie wants to stay and fight but Cesar encourages her to leave. Suzie is heartbroken, but eventually agrees.

In the mid-Atlantic, the ship to America is bombed. Suzie is rescued but Lola drowns.

Once in America, Suzie continues her search for her father, which finally leads her to Hollywood.

Synopsis

A gang of kids find a strange house with an overgrown garden where they play. Only once do they meet the man who lives there, a dead-beat alcoholic with a free and easy spirit who welcomes them. The children see him as a romantic character in stark contrast to their neurotically house proud parents.

Synopsis

In this new film, starring Lee Evans and Kathy Burke, the Martyns, to outsiders, are the kind of people that you'd cross the road to avoid, but though they're the family from hell, once you get to know them you can't help but love them.

Robert Martyn (Lee Evans), an unemployed but optimistic loser, lives with his adoring and long-suffering wife Angie (Kathy Burke). They have two children - Katie, their heavily pregnant fourteen year-old daughter, and angelic Little Bob, their eight year old son who worships his Dad.

Everyday he wakes up thinking that things will turn out better for him and his family, and that one day he'll win one of the competitions he's always entering. All he wants to do is give his wife and kids everything they really deserve.

When Robert discovers that yet again he hasn't won the 'Dream Holiday' of a lifetime, a competition in his local newspaper, he finally snaps. He decides to take the law into his own hands; if he can't win a holiday, he'll just have to steal one!

Synopsis

It's a story that's been told for 2000 years, but never like this. The Miracle Maker is a brilliant new portrayal of Jesus, uniquely innovative yet convincingly authentic. Powerfully told through the voices of a distinguished cast, it begins with the chance encounter between a sick young girl, Tamar (Rebecca Callard), her Pharisee father Jairus (William Hurt) and the quietly resolute carpenter (Ralph Fiennes).

Tamar becomes one of an ever-increasing following fascinated by the spiritual strength and leadership of this charismatic man, but her father and other people in authority are troubled by Jesus' ability to inspire the people. Plotting against him, the rich and powerful Ben Azra (Anthony Sher) arranges the murder of Jesus' faithful friend John the Baptist (Richard E. Grant) and stirs up the authorities against him. While Jesus shocks the leaders by healing the crazed woman Mary Magdalene (Miranda Richardson), Jairus knows he could ask Jesus to save his dying daughter, as his wife Rachel (Julie Christie) begs him to do.

Now the unstoppable conflict between belief and authority will come to a head when the great pilgrimage reaches Jerusalem in a confrontation between the power of God and the power of Rome, wielded by Pilate (Ian Holm).

Vividly effective, this epic international co-production combines the rich detail of three-dimensional model animation, graphically striking two-dimensional animation and sophisticated computer effects to achieve extraordinary intensity and realism. It has been written especially to appeal to children and families, who will find themselves irresistibly involved in the power struggles and passion, despair and elation of the man who is 'The Miracle Maker'.

Synopsis

Eamonn Manley (Kris Marshall) hasn't much going for him. He's 24, he works in a Dating Agency (Amoré - 'Your Love is Our Affair') and he lives with his Ma. At night he hides in his room, dreaming of superhero adventures, romance and a girl he's too scared to approach.

Yet his life takes on a new direction when, after a miraculous encounter with Mary Mallory (Tara Lynn O' Neill), the local good time girl, Eamonn discovers he has the highest sperm count in Ireland. With male fertility rates plummeting around the world Eamonn finds himself in demand. Seduced by the possibility of doing good and a taste of the high life, Eamonn is persuaded by his friend Millicent (Bronagh Gallagher) to start providing a unique service to the good ladies of Belfast.

With his new-found confidence, he finally finds the courage to ask out the girl of his dreams. Rosie (Kathy Kiera Clarke) works at the local funeral home and has proved impervious to the approaches of more bullish guys. Entirely unaware of his new profession she finds herself drawn to the innocent, awkward Eamonn. And so begins Eamonn's bizarre double life: Lothario to half the city by day and shy lover to Rosie by night. His life is weirder and more wonderful than he could ever have imagined.

Meanwhile the 'most fertile man in Ireland' has come to the attention of the local Protestant hardmen, led by Mad Dog Billy Wilson (James Nesbitt), formerly 'the most-feared and psychotic' paramilitary in Belfast who now finds himself in a world that no longer requires or endorses his services. Aware that the rising birth rate in the Catholic community means the Protestants will no longer be in the majority, he is determined to get Eamonn to even the score.

Synopsis

The Navigators follows the fortunes of a group of rail track workers based at a South Yorkshire depot as the privatisation of British Rail takes effect. When Harpic (so called because he's clean around the bend), the depot boss, gives Paul, Mick and the rest of the gang their new working brief, the company's 'mission statement', 'performance-related pay' and no paid holidays seems like a joke. But before long the choice is very clear to the gang; take their chances with redundancy cash and life as casual agency workers, or work for the company under the new rules...

Synopsis

The Parole Officer is a comedy starring Steve Coogan as an honest but inept probation officer who moves from a small northern town to a big city where he witnesses a serious crime and is framed for murder. The only way he can prove his innocence is to break into a bank vault where the crucial piece of evidence is stored. He goes back to his home town to persuade three of his former clients to return to lives of crime and help him rob the bank.

Synopsis

It's 1940 London, the height of the Blitz. Two young women, Lily (Anna Friel) and Sophie (Julie Cox) work as East End seamstresses. They are best friends, working and playing like typical 20 year olds despite the nightly bombings.

They meet two Canadian servicemen at a dance, Charlie Travis (Aden Young) and Louie Maldoff, and fall madly in love. Charlie regales Lily with stories of his family's huge 'John Wayne style ranch' on the Canadian Prairies. In a matter of weeks the two couples are married and the boys are shipped to the front. Lily learns she will have Charlie's baby.

After the baby is born, mother and child and Sophie are shipped across the sea to their new in-laws by the Canadian Embassy. While Sophie is welcomed into a wealthy and warm family, Lily is met with an icy reception from her bitter mother-in-law, Betty (Brenda Fricker) and crippled sister-in-law, Sylvia (Molly Parker). What's even worse, the 'dream ranch' is actually nothing more than a dirt-farm with a tiny shack in the middle of nowhere.

In true 'Lily' style, she struggles to overcome these obstacles and is determined not to let anything interfere with making her new life and marriage work. After several years, Charlie returns, no longer the fun loving, naive man Lily married in London. He has become a shell-shocked stranger.

Lily considers joining a now disappointed Sophie in Returning to London, but decides, in spite of everything, that she wants to remain in her home with her new Canadian family. Charlie and Lily resolve to face the rest of thier lives together, undaunted by the past or the future.

Synopsis

When his conscience awakens, his journey begins.

The Warrior is a timeless story of an epic journey from the deserts of Rajasthan to the snow capped peaks of the Himalayas.

The story follows Lafcadia, head of a small band of warriors employed by a tyrannical lord, who rules the region from his crumbling fort in the desert. The warriors are ordered to wipe out a village late with its payments. The warriors set off on horseback and proceed to raze the rustic village to the ground.

In he midst of the slaughter Lafcadia has a mystical encounter with a young girl. Lafcadia drops his sword and vows to never kill again. He decides to escape his violent life. He sets off with his young son, Katiba, for his native village in the mountains.

Synopsis

This film is a tale of one man's struggle to grasp reality in an alien land. It is a bleak fairytale set in the parallel worlds of a solitary skinhead. He must follow a childhood trust, to release him from his past and lead him to the white room.