Projects in genres: Drama

Synopsis

Such a Long Journey is an intricately layered, wryly humorous novel set in Bombay in 1971, the year India went to war over the fate of what was to become Bangladesh. A hard working bank clerk, Gustad Noble, is a devoted family man who gradually sees his modest life unravelling. His young daughter, Roshan, falls ill in spite of his and his wife's ministrations; his promising son defies reasonable voice amid the ongoing dramas of his habitually quarrelsome neighbours. One day Gustad receives a letter from an old friend, now working for a CIA-like branch of Indira Gandhi's government asking him to help in what seems like a heroic mission. In his innocence, and with feelings of loyalty to his friend, Gustad uneasily agrees. He soon finds himself over his head and alone in his unwitting complicity as he is drawn deeper into a dangerous network of deception. Gustad's quiet dignity, his sense of moral order, have luminous presence in the sometimes antique world of his friends and acquaintances including the medicine lady, Miss Kutpitia, who suggests elaborate medical spells; the lame and child-like Tehmul; Dinshawji, Gustad's bumptious co-worker and friend, whose flirtation with the new typist goes too far. Compassionate, broad in its vision, and rich in details of character and place, this is a mature and rewarding saga that charts the journey of a moral heart in a turbulent world of change.

Synopsis

A ship sets sail on an epic voyage through malignant natural and supernatural elements from which one man alone survives. An adaptation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner illustrated by 19th century wood engravings which are animated by scratching directly into the surface of colour filmstock.

Synopsis

July 19th 1947. Albert Speer, Hitler's Architect and War Minister, is sent to Spandau Prison for twenty years for his involvement in Nazi War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. He claims ignorance of the Final Solution, but enlists the help of the prison chaplain to try to reconcile his sense of guilt over the terrible things that took place with his pride in his achievements and dream of building the greatest city in the world.

Synopsis

Leicester, 1972. T-Rex are chewing up the charts and Jack, a mixed race teenager with a lot more than schoolwork on her mind, has a hectic month of growing up to do. This is coming-of-age, Midlands-style: forget the Prom, corridor passes and making out at the drive-in. Think Baked Alaska, the Colgate ring of confidence and sneaky cigarettes behind the bike sheds. When we first meet Jack it's the day of her first period and just four weeks before she has to run the race of her life for a place on the county athletics squad. Convinced she is champion material, her bullish PE teacher, Mr Loughborough, is piling on the pressure to train hard, and buys her a long-coveted pair of swanky red trainers to demonstrate his commitment. But a 13-year-old's life is not just one long 200 metres: Jack shines in academia and art class as well as on the track, and she's got her eye on a rather handsome classmate called Steven Green. Sex, 'frigging' and the big 'V' are the subject of every school bus seminar and playground pow wow. And Jack's mum Vivian is determined to keep a beady eye on her daughter's new-found interest in matters carnal. Vivian is also convinced her daughter is about to be offered a cocktail of class A drugs on every street corner. While on a school cross-country run up to the local tourist trap and nookie spot, Jack is approached by Spanner, a David Cassidy look-alike with a nice line in cannabis consumption and floppy hair. He introduces Jack to the delights of getting slowly wasted in the sun. Meanwhile Jack's best friend Maxine sets her pal up in a garage tryst to do the deed with Steven Green and his spotty mate Poor Bastard. But the three of them are disturbed by a local policeman. By now determined to throw off her cumbersome virginity, Jack steals a handful of contraceptive pills from her mum's bedside cabinet and finally gets together with Spanner...

Synopsis

The Governess is a moving love story set in the 1830's. When Rosina Da Silva's father is killed, she is forced to disguise her Jewish identity and seek employment in the world outside the sheltered East London community in which she was born and brought up. The only job that she can find is on a remote island in Scotland as governess to a spoilt young girl, Clementina. Her employer, Charles Cavendish, is a mysterious man, who is conducting secret experiments in a wing of the old house. When Rosina, overcome by curiosity, breaks into his workroom at night, she discovers that he is experimenting with photography, working towards a solution which will fix the fleeting images he has taken. Cavendish, lonely and unrecognised in his work, invites Rosina to join him in his workroom. They begin an intense and passionate affair. When Cavendish's son Henry returns home from university, this affair takes a turn that threatens to tear the whole family apart.

Synopsis

Directed by Simon Donald, who has adapted his successful play for the screen, The Life of Stuff is like life itself, a brutal blend of comedy, thrills and the unexpected. Wannabe gangster Willie Dobie has bought a squalid warehouse, which he plans to turn into a flagship of his criminal empire. Believing he has eliminated his arch rival, 'Mad Alec Sneddon', he plans to hold the party of a lifetime to celebrate. Helping to organise this event are his main henchmen, the psychotic David Arbogast and eczema-ridden Leonard. Making up this motley crew are Holly and Evelyn, lured to the party by the promise of a good time and good drugs; Fraser, the innocent perpetrator of Sneddon's demise, and Janice, who also played an unwitting part in the murder - both now trapped in the basement. During the course of the evening, with events spiralling ever more crazily out of control, Dobie is brought violently to the realisation that his dream of 'donship' is just that; a dream which will be shot down in flames as Sneddon avenges his 'death'.

Synopsis

Nimi leads a relatively peaceful life amongst the female dominated Nigerian community in a picturesque coastal town in southern France. Life consists of working as a landscape gardener, looking after her eight year old son Sammy and attending exuberant masses at the local African church. Nimi's unmarried status (and son) are frowned upon by her traditionalist neighbours and her mother Nene is very keen to marry her off to confer her with respectability. When the handsome Reverend Fola moves into town and shows interest in Nimi, it is like a godsend for Nene who desperately attempts to get the two together. Nimi's son Sammy, however, has other ideas. He has confused writer Matthew, the creator of his beloved comic action hero Saracen, with his heroic creation and deems him a much more suitable match than the Reverend Fola for his mother. He tries at length to persuade Matthew to marry his mother instead, using every means at his disposal to unite them. Against their expectations, love blossoms. Although Nimi has resigned herself to marriage to the rather unexciting Reverend Fola, she is intrigued by Matthew. However, she is also very aware of Matthew's married status, distrust of women and general unwillingness to commit to a relationship. In contrast, Matthew is drawn to Nimi not just for her beauty, but the stability of her African way of life and an innate goodness which throws him completely off-guard.

Synopsis

The young street kid Tashan is branded for a theft and left for dead. He awakes and embarks on his journey through rural India, during which he discovers he has a gift.

Synopsis

Nineteen year old Iris thinks she can handle her mother's untimely death. She doesn't understand why her older sister Rose is so upset. Surely life goes on, and in order to prove this Iris leaves her boyfriend Gary and moves into a bedsit. In her new home, she begins to transform herself by dressing up in her mother's wig, fur coat and sunglasses. A new sexually confident Iris emerges and she begins to haunt the streets and clubs of Liverpool, picking up men. Iris thinks that she is in control, that she is having fun. However, her increasingly manic behaviour is exacerbated by her combative relationship with her older sister Rose. The two sisters have always competed for their mother's attentions and her sudden death brings to the surface their feelings of jealousy and rivalry. Iris becomes increasingly estranged from her sister, her friends and her ex-boyfriend, who is trying to win her back.

Synopsis

Yoman's Dance, a contemporary London story, investigates how a young Senegalese man with a lack of English, copes in the cosmopolitan metropolis. The central theme of the story is Yoman's battle to overcome his inability to express and articulate. Not naive to the difficulties of moving to a new and foreign city, and armed with a complex history and optimistic attitude, Yoman is well able to meet the many challenges that face him. However, the constant wear of misunderstanding climaxes with the failure of his first short lived encounter, which leads to a final sense of isolation.

Synopsis

A young woman treks around a London park on a Summers day. Hit and miss meetings ensue while her ruminations on life and dreams may not stand up in the pedestrian chaos. Can she figure fantasy from reality? Is the journey better than arrival?

Synopsis

Set in the same south-east London streets where he himself had grown up, and drawing on his own experience of a violent family home, Oldman’s debut as a writer-director captures a particular corner of London life – one marked by petty crime, drug-taking, domestic abuse and hair-trigger violence – with an unflinching authenticity rarely seen in British cinema. Oldman draws stunning performances from his cast, in particular from Ray Winstone as the rage-filled patriarch Ray, and Kathy Burke as his wife Val, who yearns for more from life than the cycle of abuse and low expectations. Shot with a visceral, up-close intimacy, the film has been remastered to 4K from the original camera negative, and its impact remains every bit as searing today. (London Film Festival)