Projects matching: ISO

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.

Synopsis

The Sea Change is a contemporary romantic comedy. The main focus is on Rupert, a very successful city businessman, and his relationship with his girlfriend Alison. Rupert thinks that all he needs to complete his successful 'life package' (prosperous career, designer flat, luxurious car), is a wife.





Rupert takes Alison out to lunch and confidently proposes, but to his utter astonishment, Alison does not say yes or no; only that she may consider marrying him if he were to change.





However now Rupert's problems really begin after he attempts to return early from his business trip to Barcelona, and attend Alison's birthday. His plane becomes redirected to Madrid, he's arrested by customs and he encounters Chas the builder, a chance meeting that changes Rupert's outlook on life for ever. By the time he makes it back to London he is a different person, but his next hurdle is convincing the understandably sceptical Alison that he has changed for the better.

Synopsis

Henry James' multi-layered novel of tragic love is magnificently translated into a gorgeously realised, richly textured movie. Kate is a spirited but poor middle class girl in thrall to her wealthy Aunt and blocked from marrying Merton, her charismatic but equally penniless journalist boyfriend. Then into their lives comes Millie, a young, fabulously wealthy but lonely American heiress, who, harbouring a sad secret, is befriended by them. The scene is then set for an intensely moving drama that plays out its themes of love, loyalty, deceit and regret against the splendour and emptiness of high society.

Synopsis

Maggie, a struggling singer, is desperate to make something of her life. Is motherhood the answer? Can she find anyone to have a baby with by next Thursday?

Synopsis

Titanic Town, set in the 70's Belfast of bombs, bellbottoms, Van Morrison and Leonard Cohen, is a sometimes raucous, poignant and comic tale of one woman's crusade to stop the war. Bernie McPhelimy, feisty, hot-headed and fierce tempered, becomes an unlikely heroine for peace but her innocence brings the battle to the centre of her own home and into the heart of her daughter's first great love affair.

Synopsis

Unmade Beds is a black comedy about vanity and desire in modern America. Set in the sexual jungle of the New York singles scene, two men and two women frantically pursue their impossible dreams. Equipped with ample provisions of self-delusion, misogyny, anti-semitism and homophobia, Brenda, Michael, Aimee and Mikey are on the road to heterosexual fiasco.





Barker hired a research staff who combed New York for potential characters. Their search led them deep into the New York singles scene. They attended singles events, played the personals, and ran ads in the back page of the New York Press. Disguised as singles on the prowl, they canvassed bars and cafes in Manhattan's diverse neigh-bourhoods, until they found the 'cast'.





Employing his unique brand of 'real-fiction' Barker then directed his 'cast' under feature film conditions during the summer, fall and winter of 1996-97. During this period he wrote and rewrote his script in response to the unfolding events in their lives. 'I'd say 90% of the script was based on the actual behaviour and language of the four principal characters' says Barker. 'The rest is a pack of lies'.