Projects in genres: Drama

Synopsis

Suburbia. Quiet, uninteresting, safe. But if you look a little closer - scratch through the surface - you might find a woman like Lily, an unassuming character who looks no different from anyone else . . . but has a very unusual hobby.

Synopsis

Based on Jim Cartwright's play "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice", Jane Horrocks stars in this bittersweet-comedy as the mysterious "LV", who lives in the attic of an unkempt house on the corner of a dead-end street in a seaside town in Northern England. Ever since her father's death, LV has been silent, spending her days listening to his incredible record collection and living in the enchanted charm of his favourite singers and performers. Meanwhile, her motor-mouthed mother Mari - all brass and no class - is living it up, continuing on a booze cruise for exciting lovers.


Then a new man struts into Mari's life: Ray Say, a sleazy and spectacularly unsuccessful local talent agent who Mari thinks of as 'Elvis Breath' and her best chance yet for 'loving'. Meanwhile, LV has a revelatory run-in of her own with a man almost as shy as she is - a telephone repair-man named Billy who isn't much for vocal communication. It is the first time anyone, other than her father, has paid attention to her.


But just as things are opening up for Little Voice, Ray Say hears the magical strains of Judy Garland coming from her room - and realises that's no ghost, it's Little Voice. Stunned by her talent, he smells the big times. Dreams and desperations collide as he and Mari stake everything on making the terrified and resistant Little Voice into a star.


At last, Little Voice agrees to go public with her amazing impersonation, but just once . . .

Synopsis

Every woman wants to be wanted . . . just not by the entire Metropolitan Police Force.


Maddy's first day out with her newborn takes a Kafkaesque turn when she's arrested in Harrods for shoplifting. If this is a miscarriage of justice, then detaining her in Holloway Prison's Mother and Baby Unit is the pits. Panicked at the thought of enforced adoption, she smuggles Jack to freedom in her friend Gillian's handbag - a woman with the maternal instincts of a guppy fish.


Finding herself a runner-up in the Human Race, the only person Maddy can turn to is her hot-to-trot ex-lover Alex . . . who proves himself as useful as a solar-powered vibrator on a rainy day. The trouble with Alex is his sex appeal - he gives generously.


Will Maddy ever escape the evil clutches of Edwina Phelps, prison psychotherapist? With the emphasis on physcho. Will she ever see Alex for what he is: a self-made man . . . who worships his creator? When will Alex realise that a 'paternity suit' is not the latest look in men's wear? How do you brief a lawyer with a heat seeking penis which does not report to mission control? And why the hell is Gillian searching for a sperm happy to get egg all over its face?


There's hard knocks and rude shocks in this devastatingly witty screenplay. You'll split your episiotomy stitches laughing.

Synopsis

Jane Austen's novel, Mansfield Park, is combined with some of her comically surreal teenage writings, her letters and various biographical and historical details to construct the passionate story of a decadent, aristocratic family as seen through the eyes of one of their playthings: a young cousin, Fanny Price, dropped into their midst but always reminded she will never be their class equal.


When a highly desirable and well-established young man, Henry Crawford, seeks her hand in marriage, the family is overjoyed. But she refuses him and is consequently sent back to her achingly poor and overcrowded "home" in Portsmouth. She longs for the one person who is forbidden to her: Edmund, the idealistic second son who has been her ally and soulmate since she first arrived at Mansfield Park as a little girl. But he is on the verge of marriage to Henry's teasingly enticing sister, Mary. Henry follows Fanny to Portsmouth. If she continues to refuse her wealthy and not unattractive suitor, she risks certain poverty and isolation.


The ensuing ardent entanglements are played out against the subtle backdrop of the slave trade which we are reminded is "paying for the party" at Mansfield Park.

Synopsis

Hetty's baby is still born. Unable to grieve for this terrible loss, she takes off on the road, in a vain attempt to escape into drink, sex and speed.

Synopsis

Milk is a quirky British Comedy about a family in mourning. The death of an 81 year old woman sets the scene for this tale about family funerals and the difficulty of burying one's mother. Or not to bury her, as the case may be.

Adrian is an unmarried, unworldly and somewhat unstable dairy farmer, who hasn't had life work out the way he wanted. Despite the ambitions of his youth, he still finds himself at home, slopping after the dairy cows, still waiting for the lightning that never came. His cosmopolitan mother, Lucy, needed looking after in her self-enforced, bed-ridden seclusion - and the dairy farm needed a man. Until the morning she woke up dead!

Set in the Wiltshire countryside, the action begins when Adrian discovers Lucy's body and ends with its offbeat disposal 48 hours later. In the meantime, Adrian's extended family piles into the dilapidated farmhouse to mourn her passing and to scramble over her loot.

Much of the comedy springs from the intense selfishness that often overcomes people at such times, as if the dead person's love can be sequestered like property, as if Lucy's love could be possessed as easily as her favourite painting.

Upon finding his mother dead, Adrian executes her pet parrot and confiscates her precious painting. Then Lucy's mourners arrive: her refined and reticent older daughter, Harriet, her clever and neglected younger daughter, Virginia, her elegant and greedy brother, Harry, her elderly and urban lover, John and finally her closest friend Veronica Price.

They all want a piece of Lucy, they all have conflicting plans for her funeral and Adrian intends to confound them all on both counts.

Synopsis

An old con man is released from jail determined to reform. He just has one more job to do. But from the moment he comes out, Poole is being pursued by a sinister gangland boss to whom he owes money.


Poole finds what he believes is a sanctuary in a suburban house belonging to a domineering old woman, Mrs Mooney, and her emotionally repressed daughter Alice. Here, Poole indulges in a private passion - his huge model train system and he slowly draws Alice into his strange fantasy world.


Their developing love affair is deepened by a mutual need to escape the past. But as the criminal noose is tightened around Poole, he is forced to take flight - with Alice on the real Orient Express. It becomes a journey from romance to nightmare to Venice at carnival time where Poole and Alice are forced to make painful choices between illusion and reality.


Can the con man really rid himself of the habits of the past, even for the love of his life?

Synopsis

William is the divorced owner of a quiet London bookshop. His life is very simple until, one day, the most famous film star in the World walks into his shop and kisses him. A new romantic comedy from the makers of "Four Weddings and a Funeral".

Synopsis

Dublin 1998. An enigmatic, leather clad figure weaves his way through traffic on a powerful motorbike. This is Michael Lynch - thief, bigamist, liar, criminal genius and our hero.


Ordinary Decent Criminal is a classic gangster movie, which takes place in modern day Ireland. It follows the extraordinary adventures of an ordinary decent criminal - a man who robs from the rich but lives with the poor. He loves his two wives, sisters Christine and Lisa, his wild kids, his gang and, above all, his special way of life.


Michael is a suave, sardonic and sexy man: a criminal who strides the Dublin streets like a colossus. He dreams up robberies with hallmark panache which seldom fail to endear him to the crowd. He challenges authority at every turn, culminating in the ultimate art theft from Dublin's most prestigious art gallery when he outwits the police, Interpol and even the rest of the criminal fraternity.


Michael is driven by two fundamental beliefs: be loyal to your own and to hell with the establishment. He succeeds so well that what starts as a laugh evolves into something else. He begins to enjoy the sting more than the cash, and the notoriety most of all. As his ego drives him on, the police, in particular Noel Quigley, become determined to break him.


The police close in, increasing their harassment pressure on the whole gang, Michael makes a mistake that could break him, threatening his good name with the public, and his reliability as a bread winner. But he recovers his equilibrium in time to dream up a final grand scheme to dazzle - and survive the trap that has been set for him . . .

Synopsis

Set in Glasgow in 1973, this film is the wryly comic story of young James Gillespie and his faltering first steps on the path of true love. In her debut feature, award-winning director Ramsay creates a highly original world seen through the eyes of a thoughtful and imaginative child. Ramsay's striking control of the camera, sumptuous images and impressive command of non-professional actors have twice won her the Prix du Jury for Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival; for Small Deaths in 1996 and for Gasman in 1998.

Synopsis

Anwar has a guilty secret; Rubi wants to die. Rubi chose Anwar to help her die, but can he find the strength to do so?

Synopsis

Shopkeeping is about an Indian shopkeeper who discovers an illicit love affair which threatens his shop. He does something about the love affair, but then regrets his desperate actions, and tries to make amends.