Projects in genres: Drama

Synopsis

Dummy is a coming of age drama about two young brothers whose lives are thrown into turmoil when their mother dies suddenly, leaving them to fend for themselves. While Danny loses himself in music, sex and drugs, his younger brother Jack takes action – transforming, with the help of some make-up and his mother’s old clothes, a life size mannequin into a brand new ‘mummy’ for him to talk to. Jack’s obsession with this new member of the family leads to both comic misunderstandings and bitter antagonism as the pair battle through grief, anger and denial. Finally, the boys intense struggle to survive in an upside-down world leads to a new understanding that gives them both hope for the future.

Synopsis

A thriller reteaming A History of Violence director David Cronenberg and leading man Viggo Mortensen, and written by Steve Knight. The mysterious and charismatic Russian-born Nikolai Luzhin is a driver for one of London’s most notorious organized crime families of Eastern European origin. Several lives – including Nikolai's own – hang in the balance as a harrowing chain of murder, deceit, and retribution reverberates through the darkest corners of both the family and London itself.

Synopsis

Ecology is a feature film in three parts, three characters and three stories to be screened in any order: the stories of a mother, a daughter and a son, on holiday in Majorca. This is not the Majorca of package holidays but a writer's retreat, in a location solar powered and environmentally responsible. Delivered as three internal monologues narrated as voice-over, we are caught in the rhythms of an urgent repetition of events past and scraps of imagined dialogue directed at but never spoken to an other. Appearing to reference a debate on the ethics of the environment, Ecology innovatively turns the idea towards the ethics of psychic recycling, the debris passed on and re-circulated among people.

Synopsis

Eichmann is based upon the final confession that Adolf Eichmann made before his execution in Israel and accounts of his past as the architect of Hitler's plan for the final solution. A character portrayal of Eichmann, who had been a senior SS officer in the Nazi War machine, begins 15 years after the end of the Second World War. Captured by Intelligence operatives and facing certain death in front of the world media, Eichmann accounts for his part in the death of six million Jews.

Synopsis

We meet 8-year-old Ela at a very particular moment in her life: the moment she experiences loss for the first time.

Synopsis

The Golden Age finds Queen Elizabeth I facing bloodlust for her throne and familial betrayal. Growing keenly aware of the changing religious and political tides of late 16th century Europe, Elizabeth finds her rule openly challenged by the Spanish King Philip II with his powerful army and sea-dominating armada—determined to restore England to Catholicism. Preparing to go to war to defend her empire, Elizabeth struggles to balance royal duties with an unexpected vulnerability in her love for Raleigh. But he remains forbidden for a queen who has sworn body and soul to her country. Unable and unwilling to pursue her love, Elizabeth encourages her favourite lady-in-waiting, Bess, to befriend Raleigh to keep him near. But this strategy forces Elizabeth to observe their growing intimacy. As she charts her course abroad, her trusted advisor, Sir Francis Walsingham, continues his masterful puppetry of Elizabeth’s court at home—and her campaign to solidify absolute power. Through an intricate spy network, Walsingham uncovers an assassination plot that could topple the throne. But as he unmasks traitors that may include Elizabeth’s own cousin Mary Stuart, he unknowingly sets England up for destruction.

Synopsis

A ten-year-old boy rebels against his tyrannic father who is obesessed with the legacy of Elvis Presley; and a young man sets off in search of a surrogate father figure.

Synopsis

Czech literature teacher Josef Tkaloun, who is past retirement age, realises one day that he no longer understands his pupils, and so he quits - dramatically. What he does not predict is that in doing this he will lose his sense of place in society. He finds himself isolated in his city flat with only his wife Eliska for company. Unsure how to deal with this new situation, Josef tries to find a way out. After a few vain attempts at finding a decent job he accepts a position at a refundable bottles counter in the local supermarket. In this seemingly inhospitable place, he solves what had been the root of his unhappiness. Surrounded by characterful people and at the centre of a city community, Josef finally finds his way back to his own wife.

Synopsis

Ellie (Sasha Jackson) struggles to become a dancer, despite the misgivings of her mother (Sally Reeve). She fantasises about Dance God (Brendan Cole) before meeting the down to earth Mark (Travis Oliver). With success as a belly dancer in her grasp, she must choose between her dreams and the people she loves.

A truly beautiful movie for dancers and dreamers alike.

Synopsis

It’s a morning like any other and a while a wife gets ready to go to work her husband organises a little surprise for her: her funeral. As the husband secretly plots with the undertaker on the phone and his wife in the background, he forgets one thing - the wife is always one step ahead of the husband.

Synopsis

Exodus re-imagines the second book of the Old Testament set in the near future.

Shot in the English seaside town of Margate, Exodus involved the participation of local people in key roles both on and off screen and as the many hundreds of extras. The film tells a compelling story of identity and migration and great movements of peoples in search of a Promised Land.

Synopsis

One day, one table in a coffee shop.

A host of top UK stars star in the gem of an anthology short. Sir Norman Wisdom, Geoffrey Hughes, Don Warrington, Vincent Franklin, Guy Henry and Finty Williams.