Projects in genres: Drama

Synopsis

A small girl, who doesn't believe in fairytales, meets an old woman who claims that she is a mermaid.

Synopsis

Jake and Steven are 16 and living in a small town on the South coast. It's the end of Christmas term and they're excited about the skiing holiday they're about to go on. But it's not just the holiday, it's everything. 16 going on 17 is a great age to be, and Jake and Steven know that the next year is going to be the best ever, with better parties, more laughs, even less parental control and all the girls a year older and maybe this year they'll make good promises.


So Jake, Steve and their classmates go with Mr. Diamond, their English teacher, to France to ski. One of their friends, Heather, has brought along a videocam and is making a documentary about them all, what they want, who they want, ambitions and fear, that kind of thing. Day one they hit the official slopes but the next days it's off-piste. The eleven friends lark about for Heather's camera when BANG! The avalanche hits and they're all swept away on a sea of snow.


Jake wakes up buried in a snow-cave next to Steven. He thinks they're both goners but next time he wakes up it's hospital, rescued. He finds Steven in a nearby bed. Everyone is dead, all of them, Heather, Mr. Diamond, everyone . . .


Back home it's a huge tragic news story. Jake and Steven fly back to their families and a grieving town with the coffins of their friends on the plane with them. As the town, school and families struggle to come to terms with it, Jake and Steven are lost, separated from everything, unable to understand.


They meet and talk. Why didn't we die too? What should we do? What's the point? They stand on a high cliff and look down. Should they jump? No. They decide they'll make a book and fill it with a series of tasks, not important tasks, just things they want to do before they die. And they'll spend the year doing them . . .

Synopsis

In a time when women were expected to conform, Nora, a spirited young woman who has been abused all her life, has her world changed when she meets raffish young writer James Joyce and the pair succumb to a mutual desire.


Persuading him to start a future together away from Dublin, the couple set up home in Trieste, where their passionate and tempestuous life together begins. Joyce is tormented by a fear his work will never be published, but Nora's simplicity and humour anchor his instability and the couple's relationship is bonded by a direct, deep sexual love.


Joyce's complex, torturous nature leads him to irrationally distrust Nora and his attraction to the theme of betrayal motivates him in his work. Nora, faithful and devout, is the one who is being betrayed - in Joyce's manipulation of her as a fuel for his writing.


Ultimately their love is so strong, so all-consuming, that through the subsequent years of turbulence, of Joyce's obsessive behaviour and Nora's courageous and desperate struggle to save their relationship, from Trieste back to Dublin, their devotion conquers all.

Synopsis

Director May Miles Thomas described her debut feature as a "camcorder epic". Besides writing and directing One Life Stand, Miles Thomas took on DoP and editor duties. The result - affirmed by Screen Digest - was the UK's first digital feature, screening in partnership with Digital Projection Inc.
Following a premiere at Rotterdam, the film screened around the world over a two year period, winning multiple awards and drawing an impressive amount of attention and acclaim for both its drama and innovative technical aspects.
Miles Thomas herself won a Fellowship from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts and was recognised by HM The Queen as A Pioneer to the Life of the Nation for her work as a digital film-making pioneer.

Synopsis

With it's compelling tale of romantic tragedy in nineteenth century Russia, Alexander Pushkin's epic novel 'Eugene Onegin', has moved and intrigued audiences for 150 years.


Captivated by its powerful narrative about love and loss, award winning actor Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient, Schindler's List) and his sister, director Martha Fiennes, have assembled a talented and exciting team to bring Pushkin's story to the screen.


Evgeny Onegin is a jaded and disaffected young man who leaves St Petersburg unexpectedly when he inherits an estate from a wealthy uncle. In the country, he is a city sophisticate out of place, with little affinity for the countryside or its people. Nevertheless he strikes up a warm friendship with a neighbour, Vladimir Lensky and, despite his natural cynicism, he is charmed by Lensky's love for his fiancée Olga. He is also intrigued by Olga's sister, Tatyana, a spirited beauty who surprises him with a passionate declaration of love. Onegin is disturbed by her directness but unable to respond and, coolly and politely, rejects her love.


As if needing to demonstrate the cruelty of his nature, Onegin later insults Olga and is challenged to a duel by Lensky who's code of honour prevails when Onegin attempts to extricate both of them from the confrontation. Onegin's shot is fatal and, grief-stricken, he cradles his best friend's body in his arms. Afterwards he leaves and goes into self-imposed exile.


Six years later, Onegin returns to St Petersburg where he again encounters Tatyana, now married to his cousin Prince Nikitin. In realisation of the bitter mistake he made years ago, Onegin determines to claim her and Tatyana is faced with the most difficult decision of her life.

Synopsis

Nick Grosso's award-winning play Peaches, produced by the Royal Court in association with the National Theatre Studio in 1994, launched the career of one of Britain's most promising new playwrights. Grosso now dons the director's hat with this adaptation of the play for the big screen, an ordeal that took some six years to realise.

Exploring the identity crisis afflicting so many young 1990s men, the story revolves around sex-obsessed Frank and his student friends. From a Leeds college bar to the pubs of North London, their emotional adventures are charted in the seemingly nonchalant and comically-hip language of confused and hapless twentysomethings.

Frank's summer as a carefree slacker looks rosy until his best friend starts a job scheme. Then, when his other mate moves in with a girl and a college sweetheart tells him a big secret, Frank's world starts to spin out of control.

The film was inspired by Grosso's own personal philosophy when, as a student, life "wasn't about work, but about getting up in the morning -- about chicks and babes. Work was just a distraction".

Besides Grosso's status as a voice of his generation, the film's saleability rests on its two stars, Matthew Rhys and Kelly Reilly. The former is an up-and-comer whose credits include the soon-to-be-released Sorted and Titus, the latter was recently seen in Ben Elton's Maybe Baby, and both have starred alongside Kathleen Turner in the West End stage version of The Graduate.

Shot with backing from a mix of private equity finance and the Irish Film Board, the film will be offered to agents and distributors in the autumn.

Synopsis

Following Brassed Off and Little Voice, Purely Belter is director Mark Herman's third film to be rooted firmly in the North of England - in this case Newcastle. And like his two critically-lauded hits, it uses a comic energy to tackle serious, gritty reality. "That is his talent as a director - taking ordinary people and successfully combining the comedy and tragedy that make up their lives," says producer Elizabeth Karlsen, who also worked with Herman on Little Voice.

The film, based on Gateshead teacher Jonathan Tulloch's debut novel The Season Ticket, follows two Geordie lads whose wild ambition is to get season tickets for their football team, Newcastle United. Gerry (Chris Beattie) and Sewell (Greg McLane) are broke but they are also resourceful, devising schemes and scams in their attempts to raise the £1,000 they need. However, real life - Gerry's violent dad, Sewell's pregnant girlfriend - keeps getting in the way.

"Football does form the backbone of the story, but it is less a film about football than a film about the boys' dream," says Herman. "It captures the spirit of being a working-class teenager on Tyneside," adds Kevin Whately, who plays the boys' teacher.

DoP Andy Collins helped catch the energy of the story - and of the two young unknowns playing the leads - by using a lot of natural light and shooting with a hand-held camera on a dolly.

Purely Belter, the first film from Mumbo Jumbo, was selected to screen in Directors' Fortnight at Cannes this year.

Synopsis

Set around youths in contemporary London, where cultures, class and race intermingle and influence each other freely and adopted American street style is the fashion of the day. Three teenagers, Jamie aka Rage, a rebellious rapper, Godwin (G), an introverted pianist, and Thomas (T), a forlorn DJ in search of a cause, find themselves in a slow spiral which begins to erode their bond of friendship after a botched-up attempt at a burglary fuelled by desparation. They are not professional thieves but teenagers in pursuit of a dream, to cut a hip hop record. Their failed act will sound a wake-up call which forces them to re-evaluate the true nature of their friendship, as their denied separate paths creep in.


Was their dream and friendship about making a record or based on a subconscious need of helping each other on their journeys of self-discovery and awakening? Hovering in the background of our protagonists' story are Jamie's friend and mentor Marcus, an elderly Rastafarian with a flawed wisdom and a penchant for marijuana which he cannot afford, and Jamie's single mother Ellen, a young woman struggling to navigate her children through the mine-filled existence of a London council estate where the resident charismatic drug lord Pin rules supreme.

Synopsis

Pete's (Rhys Ifans) business is going bust, his sperm count is dodgy, and his relationship with Sarah (Sadie Frost) is on the rocks. He's infatuated with his secretary Charlie (Dani Behr), despite her being hitched to his bike-messenger Trevor (Andrew Howard) and he's spending too much time in Harry's (Nick Moran) coke den. In short, Pete's in trouble.


Then his charming Irish accountant and boyhood pal Deeny (Joseph Fiennes) fixes up a meeting with the mysterious Russian Mr Kant (Steven Berkoff) and his 'assistant' (actually his daughter) Masha (Tara Fitzgerald). Masha and Pete get it together and Mr Kant comes over with the emergency loan. Pete is saved.


But then comes the payback: Pete is summoned off the M25 by Masha, and ordered to Russia. There, he is taken in hand by Dr Jones (Keith Allen), Mr Kant's guru, made love to again by Masha - and then appears to be killed by Mr Kant's terrifying bodyguard (Olegario Fedoro) as a warning to other Western 'partners'. Meanwhile it's clear that Deeny set the whole thing up and is plotting to take over Pete's firm - indeed his whole life.


However, Pete's not dead. Returning to London, he finds Sarah's pregnant and he's got to kill Deeny. The only people Pete can turn to are Charlie and Trevor. Masha is pregnant too and Mr Kant won't intervene.


Pete's got a great plan, and Masha agrees to help with the greatest - and most bizarrely convincing alibi ever, but just as its all coming together Pete learns that Deeny has Sarah and Charlie at his mercy. Now Masha and Mr Kant must help and race to his aid, but Pete has to face Deeny alone, head-to-head, and right up to the final frames.

Synopsis

Award-winning playwright Conor McPherson steps behind the camera for the first time with Saltwater, a tale of ordinary folk in extraordinary circumstances. In an out-of-season coastal town in Ireland, the local chippie is on the verge of going under. Ever since his mother's death, Frank (Peter McDonald) has been helping his father (Brian Cox) hold the fort. But dad is in hock to the local bookie and loan shark (Brendan Gleeson) so Frank takes matters into his own hands and robs the bookie. Needless to say, things don't quite go as planned.

Inspired by a dream McPherson had several years ago, the film began as a stage play called This Lime Tree Bower, which took the form of a series of monologues from the three main characters: Frank, his younger brother Joe, who feels his mother's absence the most, and Ray, a university tutor who is in love with the brothers' older sister.

McPherson then teamed up with producer Robert Walpole, who, along with his directing partner Paddy Breathnach, had turned his first screenplay, I Went Down, into an award-winning hit film. Saltwater went into production just as McPherson's acclaimed play The Weir was earning raves on Broadway in New York.

The film world-premiered in the Panorama section at the Berlin Film Festival in February where audience reaction was favourable. It had its Irish premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh in July and will open in Ireland through Buena Vista in September.

Synopsis

Frank

For Frank Beneventi - an anally retentive twenty-something who nags and fusses over his dad as if they were man and wife - Saltwater is the story of his emancipation. Desperate to rescue his father from the jaws of local loan shark Simple Simon, Frank calls upon internal resources of courage and complete stupidity to pull of an 'armed' heist which changes his life forever.


Joe

Four years after the death of their mother, Frank's younger brother Joe is still very much grieving. Of the Beneventi children, sixteen-year-old Joe feels his mother's absence the deepest. Bored and unhappy at school, he's easy prey for another lost teen: Damien Fitzgibbon, a destructive and damaged boy with his own demons. Joe is thrilled by Damien's antics. The he stumbles across his new friend having sex with an unconscious girl in a graveyard.


Ray

Ray, meanwhile, is in love with the boys' older sister Carmel Beneventi. And embroiled in a passionate fling with Debbie, a shapely blonde student with a fondness for knee-high boots. Carmel - and her family - represent a day-to-day reality that Ray's arcane university job never comes close to touching: the Beneventis are a world away from the whiny students and horny academics of his day-job. But it's not until an eminent philosopher arrives at the university and Ray has a run in with one of Debbie's desperate suitors that he has to make some hard choices about where his live is going. And who he's going to take with him.


Saltwater is the coming-of-age story of three very different men. Through a robbery, a rape and a really terrible hangover Frank, Joe and Ray learn things about themselves that they probably didn't want to know. And nothing, as they tend to say, will be the same again.

Synopsis

The story is set in London in the present day. A young Chinese girl (Lili) runs away from an arranged marriage in Hong Kong and comes to London in search of rock-idol Bobby Gillespie.


She finds his flat but he's recently moved. An Indian commercials director (Jamal) answers the door and seeing the lost look on Lili's face, invites her up for coffee. He takes a liking to Lili, casting her in a tampon commercial and adopts her as his muse - until his Muslim family finds out.


Drawn in by the music and fashion of London's Asian subculture but with no experience of living abroad, Lili stumbles from one cultural faux pas to another until a young, inexperienced Japanese detective living in London (Go) is assigned by her father to track her down.


Her short attention-span and inability to stick to one style or boyfriend for more than ten minutes leave him weaving in and out of London's East End searching for clues.


The longer he looks for her, the more he falls under her spell until finally, he must choose between turning her in and keeping his business or falling in love.


Ravi, the middle-aged owner of a popular Muslim tea-shop in the area, becomes a central figure in bringing the lost souls together in this deadpan detective comedy celebrating the youthful energy of multi-cultural London.