Projects matching: ISO

Synopsis

Amanda and Rowly are a young couple from London approached on holiday in Costa Rica to traffic cocaine for £10,000. For most mules, once is enough, for them it is just the beginning; until the consequences they face are far worse than the fear of imprisonment.

Synopsis

A photograph of a silhouetted girl by a lake is stuck on a wall and kissed. Over time the image degrades, becomes inky till eventually all its recognisable features are gone and a hole has worn through it. Alex clings on obsessing to the memory of his lost love Beatrice and the world passes him by as he descends into alcohol, isolation and a deep depression. Gone are the jokers of his past. Beatrice's life doesn't go on any smoother - continually affected by delusion and paranoia, suggesting Alex's violent return. This seems to reach its peak when her new boyfriend is kidnapped, interrogated and murdered. When did young love go so badly wrong?

The bullet to the head at the start of this dark psychological drama is nothing by contrast to the reality of a mental health disorder.

Synopsis

Identical twins are separated at birth. One, Liam, becomes a successful though over-stretched property developer in the new godless, greedy Ireland; the other, a homeless bum in Leeds. They are the have and the have-not.

In a series of wickedly devious comic episodes, the have-not sets out to steal Liam’s life. He succeeds, but finds nothing but debt and grief. Liam, on the other hand, discovers he is less aggrieved than he thought he might be to find himself relieved of his burdens.

Synopsis

A small town is infected by a deadly virus, and a frantic cover up is taking place. Three days after the initial contamination several special forces units are sent in on a recognisance mission, their objective; to measure the effects of the the virus and locate any survivors unaffected by the plague. The story follows the exploits of S.A.S Beta team who discover upon entering the town that not all the inhabitants have died from the disease, those that survived the plague have become rabid and wander the streets attacking those unaffected by the virus. Beta team are forced to abandon the streets and seek refuge in a house, their sanctuary quickly becomes a prison as the walking dead surround the building and the battle for survival begins.

Synopsis

Three Towers is set on 9/11 in a remote Italian village and centres on how the far reaching news affects the lives of an old, isolated farmer couple.

Synopsis

The unique story of how Dr Garri Urban, the film maker's father, went back after the fall of the Soviet Union to recover the evidence of his imprisonments by, and escapes from, the Soviet secret police, and also to discover how his family died in the Holocaust.

The film comprises video diaries shot over 14 years by Stuart Urban and an interview with Dr Garri Urban who also presents and narrates the story.

We experience sorrow and joy as his 25-year search, to find out if anyone from his family survived the Holocaust, brought about the discovery of his brother in Israel in 1964.

We see Garri find the woman who had been his fiancée and discover that she was imprisoned for eight years because of him.

Less than one in a hundred men who were tortured by the KGB were able to withstand the pressure to make a false confession or work for the organisation.

Even fewer survived and almost none escaped.

Garri Urban is thus a unique survivor, but also a humanitarian and a distinguished doctor whose work brought him awards from Soviet authorities.

After Garri's death in 2004, Stuart probes more and more fascinating mysteries and secrets to the man who survived what so few did. There are even allegations that Garri went on a dangerous mission for the KGB in Nazi Germany.
 

Synopsis

Trouble Sleeping tells the story of a Palestinian refugee, Ahmed, and his struggle to survive and remain a good man. He is about to be deported from the UK and be forced into a return to the Middle East which is fraught with danger. Halla knows a secret which can save him but he cost of revealing that secret will be terrible for her.

Trouble Sleeping is based on the true stories of refugees in Scotland.

Synopsis

Terry is an average gay guy, searching for love, but hardly noticed in a looks and body orientated London gay scene.

Coming home alone from a night of clubbing - again - Terry logs on to one of the many gay pick up sites available on the Internet.

With nothing but sleazy men, timewasters and strange men on line, Terry almost gives up on meeting the man of his dreams until a magic website promises him otherwise.

Suddenly given the powers to change his body to anything he describes himself as on-line, Terry starts to conjure up an array of gorgeous looks for himself. But as he embarks on a string of sexual encounters, Terry has to discover the hard way that beauty really is only skin deep.
 

Synopsis

The film follows Pete, a repeat offender, trapped in an inner city economic, and social underclass, as he struggles to make sense of the void around him. This powerful film perfectly captures the cycle of destruction brought about by hate, fear and distrust, and the isolation this environment creates.

Synopsis

A troubled young black teenager Maxine rescues an eccentric old lady Eve from an unhappy slap by a mixed-race gang of teens and is rewarded for her act of kindness with the gift of a terrible secret: how to make and operate a Wishbaby. With Eve's help Maxine gives life to a magic doll and sets out to solve her current problems, inadvertently releasing Eve's dead Governess from her astral prison and unleashing a storm of supernatural activity. Her older brother Colin is gradually drawn into the dangerous situation created by the 'Little King' and must finally face his own mother in a brutal fight to the death.

Synopsis

The film's five episodes explore the legacies of Finland's post-war period, digging deep into the unspoken stories, misunderstandings and mysteries that a child of those years experienced.

Synopsis

Whilst on a Rockefeller Foundation residency in Bellagio, Italy the artist meticulously recorded her experience through photography, text and video to create an installation that takes us on a disembodied journey through the labyrinthine gardens and ruins overlooking Lake Como.
The passage of time, light, and people is central to this work where location and landscape become devices to explore enclosure and isolation - both physical and psychological states.

Intersecting paths open out into seemingly impossible locations, mysterious doors set into the rock reveal secret passageways, and as the cicadas call, a sense of languor gives way to obsession and an unravelling of sanity.

In collaboration with Robert Arnold. Available as a single split-screen film or a 2 channel installation.