Projects in genres: Drama

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.

Synopsis

For his feature debut, musician/photographer/film-maker Roger Thorp returns to themes that have informed much of his previous work, which includes films for the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations. Naked August traces the relationship between two loners, a young drifter and a musician, who meet and find in each other a kindred spirit to banish the feelings of isolation and alienation that have dominated their young lives.

Starring in the lead roles are two young graduates from the Bristol Old Vic, Sophie Clarke and Adam Penny.

Shot on digital video in February and March this year in Bristol, the film, which has been blown up to 35mm, was produced by Parrallel Pictures, the company founded in 1993 by Iain Brown and Bill Chamberlain. Says Chamberlain: 'The film is very much in the European arthouse tradition, in terms of its themes and its style. Although it deals with quite downbeat issues of alienation and malaise, it's a very uplifting film.'

Synopsis

This satirical look at war tells the bizarre tale of enemy soldiers, Tchiki and Nino, who find themselves stranded in no-man's land during the 1993 Bosnian conflict. As Tchiki and Nino try to figure a way out of the fog, a brave UN commander goes to help them, despite being ordered not to intervene. In a tense stand off between the many sides involved in the conflict, Nino and Tchiki desperately try to negotiate for their lives amidst the insanity of war.

Synopsis

The story deals with the conflict and cross-cultural tension experience between a British educated African man and his black American wife in an African setting.

The film revolves around Emma, a black American who grows up in America's deep south. Her dream is to settle in Africa where, she believes, people will not view her with suspicion, but accept her as an integral part of the human race.

Kofi Boateng, the husband, is born of African parents having lived in London since the age of sixteen. He is an architect with a multi-national firm. He refuses to go to Africa because he believes the continent is not developed enough to appreciate his talent.

By sheer coincidence these two characters meet in a nightclub in London. For Emma it is a dream come true, because of the possibility that one day they could settle in Africa. Whilst Kofi also sees this union as a way of eventually living in America.

The story unfolds, ten years into the marriage in London.

Synopsis

A poetic look at the tragic events during a night-time shift of two Asian-Briton doctors.

Synopsis

A chance encounter: as a boy cycles up a quiet country lane, an apple falls from tree and rolls downhill towards him.

Synopsis

Daniel Dillon sold his wife and child - and then tried to buy forgiveness.

California 1849. The snowbound goldfields are littered with countless hopefuls rushing to make their fortune. Among them are the poor Irish immigrant Daniel Dillon, his wife Elena and baby daughter, Hope. Lost in a blizzard, exhausted and starving, they stumble upon a lonely hut with a sign above which reads 'Thy Kingdom Come'.

Fuelled by drink and a lust for gold, Dillon sells his wife and child to the prospector who lives there, in exchange for a gold claim.

Twenty years later Elena and Hope return to the pioneer settlement of Kingdom Come. Although rough and tough, the town is prosperous and Dillon is now a wealthy man of considerable authority, having as his mistress the local madam, Lucia.

The Claim is an epic story against the backdrop of American history in the making. This is a world of sweeping snowbound landscapes, goldmines, rowdy saloon bars and the racket and bustle of a pioneer town.

Hard times where jealousy and rejection take their toll and where one momentary lapse of weakness, twenty years earlier brings, a final and terrible retribution.
 
Based on Thomas Hardy's 'The Mayor of Casterbridge'.

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...