Project Detail

The Happiness Salesman

Synopsis

Karen (Archie Panjabi) is resigned to a life of suburban ennui, the dreams of her youth a distant memory. On an autumn afternoon as she struggles to get her baby to sleep she is disturbed by a door-to-door Salesman (Christopher Eccleston). Desperate for adult companionship she engages with the enigmatic Salesman. He makes a claim that he can sell her something that will radically change her life; he offers Karen, an opportunity to fulfill long forgotten dreams and ambitions. But is Karen prepared to pay the price?

Details

Year
2010
Type of project
Shorts
Running time
14 mins 56 secs
Format
35mm
Director
Krishnendu Majumdar
Producer
Arif Hussein
Editor
Chris Gill
Screenwriter
Steve Gomez
Director of Photography
Jan Pester
Production Designer
Stuart Mackay
Sound
Tom Sayers
Composer
Vik Sharma
Principal cast
Christopher Eccleston, Archie Panjabi

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

Kaos Films

Pinewood Studios,
Pinewood Road
Iver Heath
Bucks, SL0 0NH
UK

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

A smartly dressed woman and man sit side by side in the waiting  room, sharing a quiet smile. Marriage Test

Director: Sara Nourizadeh

Year: 2026

Set in a mosque waiting room in 1980s South Wales, and inspired by the true story of writer-director Sara Nourizadeh's parents, a young couple whose relationship crossed boundaries of culture, faith and expectation. At a time when Iranian politics dominated UK headlines and shaped public attitudes, a Welsh woman and her Iranian fiancé prepare for an Islamic conversion ceremony – a requirement they must fulfil if they are to marry. What follows is a quietly charged and emotionally intimate portrait of two people trying to navigate a moment that is both deeply personal and subtly political. As they wait for the ceremony to begin, small details – a trembling hand, a whispered joke, a fleeting moment of doubt – reveal the emotional stakes beneath the surface. Their conversation dances between humour and tension, affection and uncertainty, reflecting the push and pull of family pressures, cultural misunderstandings, and their own hopes for the future. Authentic VHS archive footage of the real couple is interwoven within this scripted drama, grounding the film in lived experience and offering an unexpectedly tender glimpse into the decades that followed.

Colourful bugs made with oil pastel and cut out on paper, on a pink background Foreign Bodies

Director: Lysander Wong

Year: 2025

A simple itch descends into an outbreak with many legs. Certain things will always find their way to the surface. An exploration into the horror of having a body, of unbelonging.

Animation image - Strange creatures circle a pink creature, who is holding a yellow strawberry. Eye Jam

Director: Julia Jolliffe

Year: 2025

A lonely creature’s desperate struggle for connection in a desolate world - whatever the cost.