Projects matching: ISO

Synopsis

A rare collaboration between BBC Films and BBC Documentaries, Last Resort is a moving love story which deals with the controversial issue of asylum seekers.

Tanya, young and naîve, leaves Moscow with her street-wise 10-year-old son Artiom, to meet her English fiancé. But after he fails to turn up at the airport, Tanya and her son find themselves virtually imprisoned in a deserted seaside resort where all refugees are forced to live. They have no passports, no money, no rights.

Desperate to escape a nightmarish world of misfits and no-hopers, Tanya forges an unusual alliance with amusement arcade manager Alfie, an alliance which soon develops into something more. But is he just another man who will let her down, or will Tanya and Artiom finally escape?

'Paul Pawlikowski was given free rein to select the subject matter and devise the drama. He used improvisation, documentary methods and a documentary-sized crew. The end result is high-quality, low-cost film-making that has a power and individuality rarely found in more conventional drama,' says producer Ruth Caleb.

Synopsis

Two unseen narrators fall in love and comment on a series of glittering images. They discover their symptoms are the same as those of Mercury poisoning. A film about science, transformation, and tragedy.

Synopsis

From the director of 'The Full Monty' comes a prison escape comedy with a musical twist.
When a group of prison inmates co-operate with the Governor in his ambitions to stage a musical, little does he realise this is Act 1 of their escape plan.

Synopsis

A story of a lonely adolescent girl, living on an isolated farm in the middle of nowhere, who creates her own friends: the eggs she finds in the farmyard, making her own magical world to retreat herself from her violent, abusive father and her mentally ill mother.

Synopsis

In an isolated Cornish fishing village, a small boy breathlessly announces that a giant is washed up in the local cave. While the men of the village are out fishing, the women head for the cave. Who or what is inside? Only Maisie seems to know.

Synopsis

Mumbo Jumbo is a sumptuously photographed fairy tale of contemporary culture in the classic tradition of Gulliver and Alice in Wonderland.

Meet Thomas Doubting, a total loser. He can't sell his songs. He can't get a job. He's been evicted. His girlfriend dumped him. Even his dog ran away. With nothing left to live for, he decides to end it all, but he can't even do that right. In the process, he meets a mysterious old fellow who gives him a magic amulet, as if that's going to help. But then Thomas notices a headline in a newspaper the guy leaves behind - a large reward is being offered for the return of the beautiful Princess Vanilla to the land of Sinmouth. So it's off to Sinmouth in search of the Princess and his fortune.

Once there he meets a cast of Oz-like characters who believe Thomas is the next 'Mumbo Jumbo', a mythological Sprite from the sixth century who's been summoned to free them from the tyranny of an evil businessman, Mr Bounder. Bounder has kidnapped many of Sinmouth's villagers, ruined the town, and imprisoned the Princess herself. His intent is to build a financial empire on organic, high-yield fertiliser made from the remains of his fellow villagers. Thomas's work is cut out for him as he muddles and stumbles his way through the magic land on his quest to save the Princess and the world - or at least a mythological part of it.

Synopsis

When Tom comes crashing into Jessica's life from the boughs of a burning tree, she is both alarmed and intrigued by his dark nature. The woods are Tom's sanctuary from his distressing home life and they become the world where he and Jessica form a bond which is powerful and uncompromising and ultimately self-destructive.

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

In 1963, Yale University placed an advert in the local newspaper calling for volunteers to participate in a memory experiment. Obedience is the story of one man who, having volunteered for the experiment, finds himself in a struggle between his moral conscience and a malevolent authority.

Synopsis

Set in a French château and famous concert halls around the world, Off Key is a tale of swollen egos, raging libidos and enough dysfunction to keep New York's psychiatric community in the money for all time. Ricardo (Joe Mantegna), the group's charming philanderer, is caught off guard by the announcement that his estranged daughter will shortly marry Armand (George Hamilton), the trio's pompous Frenchman. As distasteful as he finds the prospect, he is not one to pass up an opportunity to reunite the three tenors, who split ten years prior following some inexpert gunplay and a drawn-out court battle. Fabrizio (Danny Aiello), who has a classic case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, completes the picture. As the three men, children legitimate and otherwise, past and future wives, and a streetwise New York prostitute flock to the wedding, the world's press gather to record the events, little knowing that the three tenors are about to put on the show of their lives.

Off Key is directed by Manuel Gómez Pereira who is acclaimed for his phenomenally successful comedies, and produced by Andrés Vicente Gómez, whose credits include over 90 feature films in 30 years of production. Among these are the 1993 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film Belle Epoque, The Girl of Your Dreams with Penelope Cruz; and Carlos Saura's Goya in Bordeaux, five-time winner at the 1999 Spanish Academy Awards.

Synopsis

How would you cope if you were suddenly confronted by your very own Guardian Angel, who could read your mind and would be there to help you sort out your life? This is the question Baggy and Sam have to answer one Summers' day, after yet another night on the town.

'Sam' (Andrew Lincoln - Boston Kickout, Gangster No.1) and Baggy (Andrew Rajan - Loved Up, Savage Hearts) are true mates, intent on having a good time all of the time. All this changes when their respective Guardian Angels, 'Zeke' (Shaun Parkes - Human Traffic, Rage) and 'Paris' (Susannah Harker - White Mischief, Surviving Picasso) turn up. Before being incarnated as humans, Zeke used to be a squirrel and Paris a dolphin. Hardly the best of credentials - All this leaves 'Alison' Sam's platonic best friend, in the dark.

They are all on a journey, overseen by the Angels' Mentors, there to help them succeed. Paris needs to get Sam to rediscover his voice. Zeke has to help Baggy mend a broken heart. But Paris is falling in love with Baggy and Baggy isn't helping matters. Sam feels Baggy is ruining things, Alison thinks Sam wants Paris and in doing so, realises she wants him herself.

Zeke wants to help Baggy and Paris get together, but can't work out the right way. Paris is an Angel and must not fall for Baggy - Or can she? Paris has a choice between this world and the next. Sam has a song to sing to his true love. Alison has only to wait. Baggy must understand what love means and Zeke has to find the right way.

The Mentors look on: 'All will become clear'.

Synopsis

Brendan, a porter at the Dublin Medical College, is plagued with financial strains and a gamblers' sordid past. Not only has he let down his wife, but also his daughter who desperately wants to go to university. However, never one to crumble, Brendon has a plan. He has found a 'golden goose' - an object with a hidden talent sequestered deep within the archives of the college which may provide the Midas touch Brendon so needs. This source has an uncanny knack for picking the winning horse at the local races.

Needless to say, Brendan and his colleagues intend to exploit this 'talent' to its fullest - risking everything on their ability to outwit the local bookies and other, rather more unexpected, obstacles. They are, quite literally, betting their futures 'On The Nose'. In a race against time they need just one last win to set themselves up - before the inevitable happens and their chance of happiness is snatched away from them forever.