Projects in genres: Drama

Synopsis

It's 1940 London, the height of the Blitz. Two young women, Lily (Anna Friel) and Sophie (Julie Cox) work as East End seamstresses. They are best friends, working and playing like typical 20 year olds despite the nightly bombings.

They meet two Canadian servicemen at a dance, Charlie Travis (Aden Young) and Louie Maldoff, and fall madly in love. Charlie regales Lily with stories of his family's huge 'John Wayne style ranch' on the Canadian Prairies. In a matter of weeks the two couples are married and the boys are shipped to the front. Lily learns she will have Charlie's baby.

After the baby is born, mother and child and Sophie are shipped across the sea to their new in-laws by the Canadian Embassy. While Sophie is welcomed into a wealthy and warm family, Lily is met with an icy reception from her bitter mother-in-law, Betty (Brenda Fricker) and crippled sister-in-law, Sylvia (Molly Parker). What's even worse, the 'dream ranch' is actually nothing more than a dirt-farm with a tiny shack in the middle of nowhere.

In true 'Lily' style, she struggles to overcome these obstacles and is determined not to let anything interfere with making her new life and marriage work. After several years, Charlie returns, no longer the fun loving, naive man Lily married in London. He has become a shell-shocked stranger.

Lily considers joining a now disappointed Sophie in Returning to London, but decides, in spite of everything, that she wants to remain in her home with her new Canadian family. Charlie and Lily resolve to face the rest of thier lives together, undaunted by the past or the future.

Synopsis

When his conscience awakens, his journey begins.

The Warrior is a timeless story of an epic journey from the deserts of Rajasthan to the snow capped peaks of the Himalayas.

The story follows Lafcadia, head of a small band of warriors employed by a tyrannical lord, who rules the region from his crumbling fort in the desert. The warriors are ordered to wipe out a village late with its payments. The warriors set off on horseback and proceed to raze the rustic village to the ground.

In he midst of the slaughter Lafcadia has a mystical encounter with a young girl. Lafcadia drops his sword and vows to never kill again. He decides to escape his violent life. He sets off with his young son, Katiba, for his native village in the mountains.

Synopsis

Annie-Mary is an awkward and secretly rebellious 20 something still living at home in a village in the Welsh valleys with her womanising widowed father. Moral support comes from the odd collection of characters who make up the population of the village but it takes a series of calamities with unexpected silver linings before Annie-Mary can finally stand up and claim her freedom. Very Annie-Mary is a joyful, poignant film about striking out against the odds, and winning in the most eccentric way.

Synopsis

An action film set in Britain's vicious gangster underworld. It's a tale of friendship against adversity. The story begins with the killing of Lloyd's younger DJ brother, Tom, at the hands of Dodge. We follow Lloyd's search for justice.

As the story untangles we are introduced to Mel and Colleen, desperate petty thieves who work for Dodge in his nightclub and are forced to stay by an ever-increasing debt to him for living expenses and Colleen's crack habit.

It's not long before they are given an ultimatum: find the money or turn tricks for Dodge. Mel plots their escape. She vows to get enough cash to get away and get Colleen cleaned up. They manage to escape with the club's takings. Hot footed they are pursued by Dodge. Desperate, they make their way to the rooftop where they manage to elude him.

Mel and Colleen are on the run in Margate where they find work on the seafront spinning candyfloss .

It's not long before Colleen's obsession with thieving draws the two back to London. Dodge finally catches up with them on the streets around King's Cross.

Synopsis

A troubled teenager purges her abusive past in a dream of her own making.

Synopsis

An unusual love story about a man who falls in love with a cat after the murder of the woman he adored. But is the cat all it seems?

Synopsis

Tackling the often-troublesome act of linking ‘the sportsman’ with unstable mental health is not a unique notion in art or life, but this film tries to discern the ‘madness’ from the sportsman when
the sportsman may not be ‘mad’; even though incarcerated in a psychiatric institution.

Synopsis

The filming of F.W. Murnau's 'Nosferatu' is hampered by the fact that its star Max Schreck is taking the role of a vampire far more seriously than seems humanly possible.
Official Selection Berlinale 2018 - Homage

Synopsis

CJ has created a fake reality in his head where he is in love with the most popular jock in school, Freddie. As suddenly as the pair have fallen in love CJ is dragged into his depressing reality, he gets bullied for his sexuality and Freddie doesn’t even know he exists. Living in his fantasy, CJ is missing out on the reality of the high school experience, he only has one friend and spends his free time watching 90s teen romcoms. With the unwanted help of his best friend, Jen, CJ is forced to come to terms with his sexuality and accept that reality can be better than living in a fantasy.

Synopsis

King Henry VIII reigned for 38 years. Young and handsome, his Court was the most colourful and extravagant in Europe. Yet this glamorous exterior partly disguised his unpredictable and savagely ruthless nature. His obsession to father a legitimate male heir led him through six marriages, to make himself Supreme Head of the English Church and to cut down those who stood in his way.
'Monarch' is part fact, part fiction, and unfolds around one night when the injured ruler arrives at a manor house closed for the season. Henry is without the power and control of his palace and is vulnerable from those around him, and from his own sanity.
Henry left England financially and morally bankrupt; his collection of enemies his only constant. Even today there is a question mark surrounding his burial and possible exhumation.
TP McKenna plays Henry; after starring alongside Richard Burton's Henry VIII in the epic 'Anne of a Thousand Days', 'Charge of the Light Brigade', 'Straw Dogs'; and with Jean Marsh ('Upstairs Downstairs', 'Willow' and 'Fatherland') playing an amalgamation of his ex-wives. 'Monarch' unfolds on one night in the year of Henry's death, 1547.

Synopsis

Newport and the Gwent valleys provide the backdrop for this gritty, hardhitting film. It's the last night of the Millennium and it's also crunch time for three couples.

Lee is a local rock singer who's tuning up for what could be his big break - a gig in London. It may be a chance to escape from Wales but can he escape from his troubled past? Dafydd and Susie are expecting their first child but footloose Dafydd is afraid the baby will stifle his freedom. And eloping to freedom is what's on Howard and Alma's minds as their affair reaches a climax.

Three couples. Three crises. One hell of a night.

Synopsis

A Love Divided is the moving and dramatic love story of a marriage between a Catholic and a Protestant in 1950's Ireland. The events of their lives made international news headlines. Based on a true story A Love Divided is essentially a love story about a brave and passionate couple whose love was severely tested but was strong enough to survive - against all the odds.


'This story is about having the nerve to stand outside of your own tribe and make your decisions in the face of your history and upbringing. It is about having control over your own lives - that is Sheila and Sean's love story'.

Syd Macartney - Director


Locations - Dublin city and country, Rathdrum and Wicklow environs, and Ballycastle.