Projects

Synopsis

High-flying City lawyer, Amy Mustafi, moves into stately Winterstoke House in the English countryside following a breakdown at her work place, caused by the bipolar disorder she has battled all her life. Amy is charged with setting up the new family home while her husband Shayan ties up a business deal abroad. A Romanian housekeeper and her young brother are engaged to help Amy run the house. They soon find a sealed off entrance to the former servants’ quarters of the estate. Upon opening the long-forgotten door, a string of seemingly supernatural incidents begin to occur. Amy discovers the mansion has guarded a mystery for over a century. In 1914, three servants disappeared and the estate was swiftly abandoned by its former aristocrat owner, who fled never to return. She begins to obsess over solving the mystery, whilst unknowingly stoking her simmering mania. Is there something else at Winterstoke House with Amy? Or is it all a phantasm borne out of Amy's mental instability?

Synopsis

Please wake up Peter. Please wake up. You need to learn your alphabet now Peter.

Synopsis

It began as the story of Dutch art lover, Michel van Rijn. It ended in murder and scandal. Michel van Rijn made millions smuggling stolen icons, artworks, and rare antiquities into Europe and the USA, evading Interpol and the CIA. Throughout the 1970s and ‘80s he lived a playboy Jet Set lifestyle, living large and wide, bolstered by the false claim that he was a descendant of Rembrandt. Michel, however, was eventually captured, then extradited and imprisoned. Michel ended up working for Scotland Yard, turning on the smugglers and forgers he had previously conspired with, drinking himself almost to death, and losing his son. Through his pioneering website, he became a crusader for the art world, uncovering trails of Nazi gold, then exposing terrorist networks financed by black market art sales. Unsurprisingly, several contracts were put on Michel’s life, including one by the Taliban. He then disappeared. Now in hiding at a Mossad-protected Jewish hotel in Europe, estranged from his family and seven ex-wives, Michel is under investigation from the FBI for masterminding the Isabella Stewart Gardner heist, where two unarmed men stole $500m worth of Rembrandts and other Dutch paintings, that remain unrecovered, and the crime unsolved.

Synopsis

Taking place over 10 days in the lead up to Christmas, 1966 and based on a true story. Infamous gangsters the Kray twins sprung Frank Mitchell (aka 'The Mad Axeman') from Dartmoor prison. Frank went into hiding in East London in a flat on the Barking Road with just a hostess and minder for company, whilst a national manhunt ensued for him and his capture. As Christmas fast approaches, the characters locked in the flat become desperate, fearful and suspicious. At the behest of the Krays, Frank writes to the Home Secretary, and his case is debated in the Houses of Parliament. If he receives a parole date, he will agree to hand himself back in. This offer is declined and Frank becames a liability. Frank falls in love with the hostess 'Lisa', and the dysfunctional family enjoy a final Christmas Eve dinner. On Christmas day, Frank thinks he is leaving the flat to go to the countryside and to be the Kray's right hand man. In fact he is taken outside, put in a van and shot multiple times.

Synopsis

Harold Miller is a lonely thirty-something with a bizarre obsession. Harold Miller loves boots. After a mysterious intruder steals his favourite pair, the Little Reds, he sets out on a journey across West London. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Laugh Strand

Synopsis

Based on Skype conversations with Gaza-based photographers, fixers and drivers who were behind specific images that were transmitted from screen to screen in the summer of 2014. The film probes the face of mourning and grief- its digital embodiment, transmission, and representation. It asks how the gaze gets channeled within the digital realm, and how empathy travels. Equally, how the documentary signifier - and its abstraction - operate when viewing suffering from behind one's LCD screen. What exactly is viewing suffering ‘at a distance’- and how many meters or kilometers is that? What is the behavior and political economy of the image of war? And who is the ‘local’ in the representation of war? (Oraib Toukan) Official Selection Berlinale 2017 - Forum Expanded

Synopsis

With exclusive access to six time Olympic gold medal winning athlete, Usain Bolt and his inner circle, and with previously unseen footage, this film tells the highs and lows of his real journey – the work and the dedication, the inspiring astounding unique and true story of the fastest man on Earth.

Synopsis

The true story of a profound, unstoppable and undying love based on the best-selling book by St John (Singe) Greene. Singe and Kate, a couple from North Somerset, had their lives turned upside down when Kate was diagnosed with an incurable breast cancer. Over her last few days, she created her list: writing her thoughts and memories down, to help the man she loved create the best life possible for their two sons, after she was gone.

Synopsis

Originating with research undertaken at the Irish Film Institute Irish Film Archive, artist Duncan Campbell’s piece takes as a starting point a 1960s anthropological film study of rural Kerry to investigate and reframe contemporary Ireland. In this work Campbell looks at some of the assumptions, ethics and misconceptions that frame the relationship between filmmakers and subjects. The piece is underpinned by extensive research into archival and documentary material, including Paul Hockings and Mark McCarty’s 1968 documentary film, 'The Village', alongside influential anthropological studies. As with much of Campbell’s work, this piece questions the validity of documentary form as historical representation, blurring fact and fiction, recording and interpretation. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Experimenta Strand

Synopsis

A foreign graduate struggles to find work and falls into London's sex industry and criminal underbelly. We followi the lives of the employees and clients of an illegal massage parlour in London, as seen through the eyes of the receptionist, a Taiwanese graduate. A film inspired by true events.

Synopsis

What started as a home movie became a committed project when Josh and Devorah found themselves unable to conceive. An endearing if ironic journey gets serious when life-threatening complications emerge. Their relationship is tested to the brink as they confront birth, death, love and loss all at once. A creative documentary about becoming a parent... and how to reconceive yourself. Fiction director Josh Appignanesi turns the camera on himself and his wife as they undergo the ordeal of becoming parents in the era of man-children and assisted reproduction. Faced with fatherhood, Josh spirals comically into an envious career funk. But life-threatening complications emerge - the couple are tested to the brink, confronting shattering losses. A portrait of our generation going through a revolution in reproduction - forced to find new ways to think about ourselves as creative beings. With contributions from writers, filmmakers and thinkers including Slavoj Zizek, John Berger, Darian Leader, Zadie Smith and Sophie Fiennes. Universal yet still taboo, a film for everyone who has children, wants them, or still feels like a child themselves.

Synopsis

“I was hungry for the coast again and took a bus down along the R675, getting off to walk a while between Annestown and Dungarvan. The cliffs are imperious here and look just like home…” A Cornishman’s travels in Ireland, through Wexford, Waterford and Cork in search of the familiar.