Projects with status: Complete

Synopsis

In a world of constant flux and chaos, it’s almost a shock to discover some experiences remain unchanged, natural, primitive even.
In the middle of London lies Hampstead Heath, 320 hectares of forest, parkland and wildlife, plus three unique, gender-segregated swimming ponds. People take the waters in them all year round, just as they did in the time of Keats and Constable.
Capturing all the beauty of the English seasons, Patrick McLennan and Samuel Smith filmed the swimmers over 12 months as they shivered, laughed, complained, ruminated, philosophised or simply sought respite from all that life threw at them.
THE PONDS is a heart-warming celebration of eccentricity and sheer bloody-mindedness as these unusual people, united by a shared passion, meet to take on whatever the weather… and life… throws at them.

Synopsis

Martin the Mushroom was born on the wrong rock. The mushrooms on his rock look like him, but they don’t share the same enthusiasm. Martin journeys to the other rock but is rejected by a native mushroom because he looks different. Thus begins his epic journey to find his place.

Synopsis

Two men, one English, one German head off to war. Both men have family at home that they have left behind to go and fight for their country, to do their duty. The film follows them as they try to deal with, and, partake in the atrocities of war.

Synopsis

An intimate documentary directed by Cary Cronenwett, produced by Lindsey Dryden, Shaleece Haas. Eisha Love was incarcerated in a men’s jail after acting in self-defense. Now, as she rebuilds her life after incarceration, she faces trying to get a steady job as an out trans woman with a criminal record.

Synopsis

A ten-minute wait in a medical clinic forces a young mother and her daughter to collide together at a pivotal point in time that will shape both their lives together.

Synopsis

There are always some moments you don’t want to say a word. The world is silent, and you turn silent.

Synopsis

A contemporary thriller focusing on a fostered teenager who has developed a vendetta against the former guardian of his foster brother. His actions, in redemption, spiral out of control, leaving him in a position where he has to hide from the rest of society. Under the assumption that his new hide-out space is unoccupied, he soon develops further problems than he anticipated.

Synopsis

In Mogadishu hundreds of deserted Al-Shabaab warriors are drifting in a limbo; unable to return to their Western countries and are now in hiding from Al-Shabaab. The film follows a young British Somali trying to make it back home while his family - including his young wife and child - try to untangle a legal and moral quagmire.

Synopsis

A group of convicts is duped into joining a difficult space mission in the belief they will be freed if they are successful. But, the authorities have no intention of ever letting them return to earth. They want the inmates to procreate and raise a child in space as part of a larger experiment.
The film follows the character of Monte a few years after the mission’s launch as he raises his daughter, Willow, in complete isolation on the empty spacecraft as it heads towards its final destination, a black hole. He fathered Willow against his will after his sperm was used to inseminate another convict in space as part of the experiment. In the process of raising her, however, he comes to experience real love for the first time in his life.
Claire Denis's first English-language feature is "an adventure beyond the solar system set in a future that seems like the present".
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - Gala Presentations - World premiere
Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2019 - Deep Focus

Synopsis

Jake is an introvert, illiterate, and unable to hold down a basic job. Unbeknown to those around him, however, he is intelligent and ingenious - strengths he uses to secretly observe his neighbour, Alice, the woman he loves. But Alice lives with her boyfriend, Guy, a small-time criminal and drug pusher. Events escalate when Jake crosses the line from Alice's voyeur to direct manipulation of Guy's illicit dealings. Things come to a head when Alice is assaulted by Guy and his accomplice. After an unconvincing appeal to the Police, Jake decides to rescue Alice in his own ingenious, yet ultimately dangerous, way.

Synopsis

A caper film about the unlikely gang of retirees that pulled off the daring Hatton Garden jewellery heist of 2015.
Developed from Mark Seal's Vanity Fair piece 'The Over the Hill Mob', the film tells the story of the epic multi-million-pound robbery initially believed to be undertaken by a gang of super-thieves. The actual perpetrators were a group of tough-guy retired criminals in their late 60s and 70s — with all kinds of physical maladies — who were mostly unoccupied and bored, until they consulted a bunch of how-to books and figured out a way to pull off one last hurrah over a long weekend in April 2015.
Entering the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company property via a lift shaft, they drilled through the 50cm thick vault walls with heavy machinery and escaped with a haul estimated to be worth around £200 million.

Synopsis

Based on his autobiographical story, writer-director Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s 'Farming' follows a young Nigerian boy as he is drawn into the warped world of a racist skinhead gang in 1980s England.
Enitan is a young boy “farmed out” by his parents to a white British family in the hope of giving him a better future. Caught between two worlds and belonging to neither, Enitan’s need for love and acceptance is exploited by the adults in his life, transforming a sweet boy into a teenage menace.
Driven by themes of identity, power, love and betrayal, and rich with compelling characters: complex and dubious foster mother Ingrid, Levi the charismatic gang leader whom Enitan must overcome, and at its heart a flawed hero, Enitan, a lost soul desperately searching for a mother’s love as he struggles to find himself in a brutal world. And, when all seems lost and Enitan spirals into self-destruction, a benevolent teacher offers him one last chance at redemption.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - Discovery - World premiere