Wah-Wah
Synopsis
As an 11 year-old, Ralph witnesses his mother's adultery with his father's best friend. His parents divorce and Ralph is sent to boarding school. Harry Compton not only loses his wife and best friend, but also his position as Minister of Education with the coming of Independence, prompting his rapid descent into alcoholism.
Now 14, Ralph returns home to discover that his father has re-married an American ex-airhostess called Ruby whom he has known all of six weeks. As round a peg as you could find in this square-holed society, Ruby ridicules the petty snobbery of colonial life by identifying colonial-speak as sounding like a load of old 'Wah-Wah'. Although Ralph is initially wary of Ruby, he bonds with her as his father's drinking escalates dangerously out of control.
Emotions climax against the backdrop of Swazi independence. Ralph throws himself into an amateur production of Camelot as a means to escape his hellish home life, falls in love and in the process begins to make sense of his turbulent relationship with his parents.
Details
- Year
- 2005
- Type of project
- Features
- Running time
- 96 mins
- Format
- 35mm
- Director
-
Richard E Grant 1st Feature
- Producer
- Julia Blackman, Joel Phiri, Jeremy Nathan
- Editor
- Isabelle Dedieu
- Screenwriter
- Richard E Grant
- Director of Photography
- Pierre Aïm AFC
- Production Designer
- Gary Williamson
- Sound
- Dominique Levert
- Composer
- Patrick Doyle
- Principal cast
- Gabriel Byrne, Miranda Richardson, Julie Walters, Emily Watson, Nicholas Hoult, Celia Imrie
Genre
Categories
Production Status
Production Company
Scion Films, Wah Film Productions, Lorna Nasha, IMG
Sales Company
The Works
Portland House4 Great Portland Street
London W1W 8QJ
UK
T +44 (0)20 7612 1080
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.
Chork
Director: Shane Meadows
Year: 2026
Set and shot along the East coast of England, from Kent through Lincolnshire, to Scotland, CHORK follows fifteen-year-old Kit and eleven-year-old Ani as they leave their foster home and trek across the coastline in hopes of a brighter future. With the police in pursuit and a national search underway, Kit must use all her determination and wits to protect Ani and fulfil their mission.
Black Church Bay
Director: Rhys Marc Jones
Year: 2026
In a remote Welsh coastal village, the disappearance of an openly-gay sixth form student disrupts the delicate balance of local life for one deputy head teacher, exposing long-buried secrets and threatening to tear the community apart.
A Time Before
Director: Leo Metcalf
Year: 2024
Olly sifts through his memories searching to understand why he is the way he is. The narrative swings between two contrasting worlds: his memories of his first years, captured by his childhood drawings, and surreal underwater live-action scenes representing his dreams. We witness fragmented memories of a torn family - an abusive father, a mother whose memory seems faded, and a sister, Sally, encouraging her little brother to escape through imagination and dreams. As memory and fantasy blur, The Time Before becomes a meditation on the stories we tell ourselves to survive, and what is lost in the telling. Official Selection Aesthetica Film Festival 2024