Projects matching: ISO

Synopsis

Nana is the documentary account of the lives, loves and experiences of four grandmothers as told to their own granddaughters. Filmed against a backdrop as culturally and filmically diverse as England, Palestine, Israel, France and New York, their stories are woven together to expose the rich, universal fabric of family emotions.





In London, Alison opens her story in conversation with her quintessentially English grandmother Kitty. In stark contrast, in Palestine Suheir approaches her grandmother Rashida with the respect due to the matriarch of 100 descendents. Fabienne is in New York, a world apart from Simone. Feeling responsible for her grandmother's imposed isolation, she goes to her in France to confront her guilt. Over in Israel, Ruti reincarnates images from her childhood where her highly spirited grandmother Blanche feeds her 'the moon'.





On one level, Nana questions the idea of 'a common destiny'. How much do we learn from our grandparents? Do we inevitably replicate them or do we simply beat our own paths in life? A many-stranded movie, Nana takes an inside look at who our grandmothers really are.

Synopsis

Amanda, an undergraduate studying French, is woken one night by a stranger breaking into her attic bedsit. From this unpromising meeting a passionate love affair develops between her and the enigmatic intruder, Mike. It's a liaison dangereuse: Amanda, a fantasist besotted with Baudelaire and nouvelle vague cinema; Mike, tough but sensitive, into more earthy pleasures. As her bedsit fills up with Mike's plunder, Amanda soon suspects her mysterious boyfriend has more to hide than stolen goods.

Synopsis

Violently arrested and thrown in jail, Bryan narrates his bizarre life story from the confines of his prison cell. Some kids suck their thumbs or stroke a comforter; this four year old Bryan, however, was into pockets...


Spoiled by his parents, his curious obsession leads to an unnatural infatuation with other people's pockets. That's when the trouble really began.
 
Watch on BBC Film Network

Synopsis

Princess is a stylish black comedy played out in a dream world. A madly possessive Father, holds his Daughter prisoner at home. She's in love with a Young Man but her Father disapproves.





Hoping to put an end to this affair once and for all, the Father advertises for a suitable husband ...

Synopsis

Modern-day setting of the legend of Prometheus who stole fire from the gods. Michael Feast plays Hermes, the messenger of the gods, as a 'narrator' figure. The first third of the film is set in the Yorkshire mining community with modern dialogue. The remainder of the film goes into rhyming verse. The second part of the film is the journey through Europe with a 20 foot high gold-leafed statue, symbolically representing the mining community, and the last third is set in Greece, where the miners are released from the statue.

Synopsis

It is the spring of 1936. An isolated Portuguese village. While his wife works, Batola idles his life away, waiting... for nothing. Then one day a salesman comes, bringing... radio.

Synopsis

By the side of a road somewhere in the North of England, Sammy stands and waits for the arrival of childhood friends Billy and Ruby. It is twenty years since they all first met, when Sammy was taken by social workers to join an isolated children's home on the dramatic Northumbrian coast. As Sammy gets into Billy and Ruby's car it is immediately clear that, despite the fact that Ruby is recently pregnant, there is violent tension between them and that there is a psychological significance to the mysterious journey that Billy is taking them on.


As the journey progresses, we travel back to the past of their childhood when Sammy, shy and vulnerable and unable to read, joins the home. Billy, confident and charismatic, befriends and guides him through the trials of life in the home and protects him from the violent attentions of the resident bully, Bernie. As Sammy grows in confidence, Billy encourages a romantic attachment with his old girlfriend, the flame-haired Ruby. Using his emotional power over his friends, Billy establishes a ménage a trois that sets them apart from other children in the home. This power is threatened when, in a dramatic incident, Billy tries to defend Sammy from Bernie and gets savagely beaten. The resulting act of revenge is one which will inextricably bind the three friends through the intervening years until the pressure of the past and present combine to force an inevitable resolution.

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

In the style of sex, lies and videotape, The Big Swap is a controversial adult, character-driven drama dealing with love, passion, obsession and sex. With a mixture of drama, humour and romance the story revolves around the exploits of a group of twentysomething couples; Eve and Julian, Ellen and Jack, Fi and Michael, Liz and Hat, and Sydney with her constant parade of boyfriends. After many good years of close and comfortable friendship, they now feel as safe and secure together as possible. One drunken night, a new idea is broached, to take their relationship one step further; partner swapping.





At first it is good fun; they think they can handle it. But it is all too late when they realise the profound effect it has had on them all; as individuals, as couples, as lovers, and as friends.





Fi's disillusionment forces her to evaluate her true feelings, leading to a shocking self-discovery which has an irreversible impact on her relationship with Michael. Julian's desire to indulge in ever-stranger sexual activities begins to alienate Eve, to the extent that she seeks love and attention elsewhere. Sydney's latest attempt at a successful relationship turns sour when her boyfriend Sam proves to be an old flame of Ellen's - one who she will never forget and whose return threatens to destroy her marriage to Jack. Hal's hidden jealousy over the sharing of his wife, his irrational obsession with Michael's prowess and his misplaced devotion to his last swap partner Eve, will lead to an act that threatens the future of the Crowd and puts the future of every relationship at stake.





The Big Swap paints an emotive and erotically charged picture of people caught in events that move swiftly beyond their control... events that take them to the extremes of human emotions... ones that will change their lives forever.

Synopsis

Pod, Homily and their children Peagreen and Arrietty are the Clocks, a family of Borrowers - tiny 4" people who live under the floorboards of a big house and 'borrow' from the Lenders, the 'human beans' who live upstairs.





When Arrietty gets discovered by Pete, the Lender's son, they tentatively become friends. Pete explains that his Great Aunt, whose house they all share, has died and as no-one can find her will, the house is to be demolished by the nasty local lawyer Potter. Pete promises to smuggle the Clocks to his new home when they move.





Although deeply suspicious of all 'beans', Pod and Homily realise they must trust Pete. On moving day, Pete packs the Borrowers into the van, but Arrietty and Peagreen accidentally fall out. Lost and disorientated, they manage to return to their old house, only to see Potter stealing Aunt Mary's will, which leaves the house to Pete's family. Arrietty and Peagreen abscond with the will, with Potter and his nephew Exterminator Jeff in hot pursuit.





An exciting chase ensues as they attempt to get to the Town Hall before Potter registers the Lender's house for demolition. As the deadline approaches, Potter's fury reaches boiling point and he employs even more nasty tactics. However, Arrietty, Peagreen and a renegade Borrower called Spiller use all their skills in keeping one step ahead of the villains. With some true heroics they ultimately win the house back so the Borrowers and the Lenders can all live happily ever after.

Synopsis

Victor Bukowski is an out-of-work actor with problems. He's got a lousy agent, he makes a habit of falling out with directors - and he's still in love with his ex-girlfriend Sylvia - who's marrying Dave tomorrow. Victor blames himself for causing the break-up of the relationship by telling her he was having an affair, and he refuses to let the past go. In desperation he has resorted to slashing his rival's tyres, bombarding Sylvia with flowers, losing all self respect in a vain effort to win her back. He discusses this with his exasperated best mate Freddy, the local tobacconist and anyone else who'll listen. And there's no love lost between Victor and Sylvia's best friend Alison. She thinks he's a phoney, neurotic clown - and she doesn't rate him much as an actor either. But Victor knows he and Sylvia had something special, something unrepeatable, and if only he'd played by the rules...





When he pours his heart out to sympathetic barmaid Diane, he finds himself embarking on an unexpected and magical emotional journey, meeting aspiring novelist Louise along the way. Drunk and dishevelled, Victor stumbles into the pouring rain and decides to end it all. But then a dustcart appears over the bridge and Victor is rescued by two dustmen Rafael and Don Miguel. Just how different would life be if Victor could go back to that warm August Bank Holiday...

Synopsis

Set in the late 1950's and early '60s The Round Tower is the story of convent-school educated Vanessa Ratcliffe, rough diamond Angus Cotton, and the events which draw the unlikely pair together. Angus, a supervisor at the engineering works run by Vanessa's father, is blamed when scandal threatens the wealthy Ratcliffe family. The situation kick starts his own ambitious plans for the future, a future which unexpectedly comes to include Vanessa.