Project Detail

Speak Like A Child

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.

Details

Year: 1998
Type of film: Features
Running time: 90 mins
Format: 35mm
Director: John Akomfrah
Producer: Ben Gibson, David Thompson
Director of Photography: Jonathon Collinson
Principal cast: Cal Macaninch, Rachel Fielding and Richard Mylan
Executive Production Executive: Christopher Collins Screen Writer: Dann Padmore

Genre

Black Drama

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

Leda Serene Ltd 31 Holberton Gardens London NW10 6AY Tel: 020 8969 7094 Fax: 020 8225 8450

Sales Company

BFI Films 21 Stephen Street London W1P 1PL Tel: 020 7255 1444 Fax: 020 7580 5830 E Mail: andrea.klein@bfi.org.uk

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