Projects in genres: Drama

Synopsis

Based on the best-selling novel by Louis de Berniers.

The idyllic beauty of Greece's Mediterranean coast has been invaded by Italy, bringing legions of soldiers to the once tranquil island of Cephallonia. Captain Corelli (Cage), an officer with an irrepressibly jovial personality and passion for his mandolin, initially alienates a number of villagers. In particular, he infuriates the village doctor, Iannis (Hurt) and his beautiful and educated, strong-willed daughter Pelagia (Cruz) whose home he shares during the occupation. Corelli's charm and decency, together with his desire to have a quiet and peaceful war, eventually wins over their friendship. When Pelagia's fiancee, local fisherman Mandras (Bale) heads off to battle, the relationship between Corelli and Pelagia grows stronger. As the war advances ever closer, Corelli and Pelagia are forced to choose between their allegiance to their countries and the love they feel for one another - a love which must overcome tremendous odds, and endure the inevitable sacrifice which accompanies eternal devotion.

Synopsis

Supermarket checkout girl Dianne Clarke embarks upon a campaign as a modern day Robin Hood, with no inkling of the chaos she is about to create. Within just a few days the Friendly Saver where she works will be brought to its knees. Double-check your receipt!

Synopsis

In modern New York, an old old lady called Angela beats off a mugger (Edge), and tells him of a time when the gold coins she has hoarded were used to buy revolutionary bullets for Balkan heroes.

In Arizona, 1900, two brothers (Luke and Elijah), tussle over the same girl (Lilith). She is the beauty in the local bordello, a diva with stars in her eyes and gold in her heart.

Macedonia, 1912, Mercenary commandos and nationalist rebels fight for this corner of the dying Ottoman empire. This is the Wild East, where the old century is bleeding into the new, and it's a dirty, dirty war.

Synopsis

Enigma is a love story set in the gripping and thrilling world of codebreaking and espionage.

When a young man invents the first computer that deciphers secret German U-boat codes during World War II, he falls in love with the girl who tries to give his secret to the enemy.

Synopsis

Jimmy Spud is not your average eleven-year-old Newcastle lad. Keener on understanding the mysteries of the Universe than playing football, his plan to become an angel comes to fruition when he meets and is befriended by the Angel Gabriel.

Jimmy's angelic aspirations are not, however, welcomed by his long-suffering family. The feather-covered costume that he wears to carry out his angelic duties - including the dramatic rescue of a young Scout from drowning - doesn't help either.

When his Dad falls seriously ill, Jimmy decides to use his celestial powers to try and save him. The Spuds need a small miracle to make things better.

Synopsis

A high-octane action thriller set in the post-apartheid South African ghetto.

Through themes of racial identification and reflections on Hollywood-style violence, Hijack Stories mixes social commentary and humour while looking at the most painful and violent aspects of South African society.

Sox Moraka (Tony Kgoroge) is a talented actor and part of the rising black middle class in Johannesburg. He fled poverty in Soweto to become a well-known television personality for South Africa's new "Rainbow Nation". Sox acts and lives the part, dating his blond co-star and living in a penthouse flat in the white suburbs. While hosting music video shows, the ambitious thespian dreams of becoming an action hero - the African Wesley Snipes. The possibility of landing a role as popular TV gangster Bra Biza sends Sox back to the ghetto to rediscover his roots. Bumbling along in an unfamiliar, violent world, he meets the street-wise Grace, who introduces him to notorious gangster and old school friend Zama Zama or the General as he is endearingly tagged by his posse. The posse consists of Fly, the kamikaze getaway driver, and Joe, a disillusioned activist whose prophetic asides about South Africa's current state provide a constant morality check. They decide that Sox is truly in need of 're-education' and so begins his crash course in the seductive, yet deadly, finer points of gangster life. One terrifying night, Sox learns that gangster life isn't all game play and, as a result, each of the characters' lives will change forever.

Synopsis

Three men meet in the pub that's been their local for 40 years. Only today someone's missing - or is he? Vic slides a box on the bar and takes out the urn of Jack Dodd's ashes, 'for one last look-in'. But why? Jack doesn't know. Or does he? As the men make their way to the sea, stopping at pubs, at Canterbury Cathedral, at the places that hold special meaning to them, they wonder - and they remember. The war, the children, the affairs, the disappointments and the ordinary triumphs. Like an emotional mystery, Last Orders slowly reveals who Jack Dodds was, and by the journey's end, like his friends, we find ourselves missing him too.

Synopsis

A rare collaboration between BBC Films and BBC Documentaries, Last Resort is a moving love story which deals with the controversial issue of asylum seekers.

Tanya, young and naîve, leaves Moscow with her street-wise 10-year-old son Artiom, to meet her English fiancé. But after he fails to turn up at the airport, Tanya and her son find themselves virtually imprisoned in a deserted seaside resort where all refugees are forced to live. They have no passports, no money, no rights.

Desperate to escape a nightmarish world of misfits and no-hopers, Tanya forges an unusual alliance with amusement arcade manager Alfie, an alliance which soon develops into something more. But is he just another man who will let her down, or will Tanya and Artiom finally escape?

'Paul Pawlikowski was given free rein to select the subject matter and devise the drama. He used improvisation, documentary methods and a documentary-sized crew. The end result is high-quality, low-cost film-making that has a power and individuality rarely found in more conventional drama,' says producer Ruth Caleb.

Synopsis

An upbeat, oddball, after-hours comedy about the ups and downs of sex and shelf-stacking in the 21st century.

Four friends, Sean, Vincent, Jody and Lenny find themselves at something of a dead-end. Trapped in a twilight world of permanent night shift work they hang out together in the local all night café, where their only escape from the drudgery is observing Vincent's unwavering success in pulling women. There seems little prospect of change. But then events conspire otherwise .

Synopsis

Liam is growing up in an Irish Catholic quarter of Liverpool in the 1930s, the youngest of three children. While he is at school trying to rid his 7-year-old head of the wicked thoughts that stand between him and the salvation of his immortal soul, his older brother is working, adding his wage packet to the household funds. Their teenage sister also does her part, cleaning for a wealthy Jewish family.

Money is tight but the family is a happy one; Liam's mother is caring and devout and his father is a responsible working man, proud to be employed when so many others are not. But hard times have hit the Liverpool docks and Liam's father loses his job. Helpless, embittered and determined to find someone to blame, he joins the local fascists with tragic consequences.

This is a child's-eye view of a family's free-fall into poverty during the depression, enriched by the irony and keyhole detail of a small boy's perspective.

Synopsis

When a group of friends take time out from clubbing to dabble with a Ouija board, what starts out as a high-spirited prank soon dissolves into a horrific and surreal nightmare. The Ouija board spells out the message ALL DIE, suddenly the friends are involved in a series of eerie murders and doubt and terror replace the previously happy bonds of friendship. One of the group is finally forced to face up to the demons in his family's past and resurrect his own childhood memories in order to overcome the intangible dangers of his own friends' future. The killer is closing in, but is he of this world, or some place far more sinister?

Synopsis

A spinning top is spun and several everyday actions become interconnected, through the power of editing.

Then it all starts to go wrong.