Projects in categories: Fiction

Synopsis

Under the cover of night, three dreamers have to look beyond the city to find what they’re searching for.

Synopsis

When Peter, an anxious arcade owner, is prescribed a sleeping app rather than sleeping pills, he reluctantly tries it out. However, far from bringing peace, Erebus’s voice takes Peter into a waking nightmare from which he may never escape.

Synopsis

Private moments become public maelstroms over one day in a south London park.

Synopsis

Brothers As’ad (12) and Taha (28) barely scrape a living as rubbish pickers in ‘Hanging Gardens’—the local nickname for Baghdad’s smouldering dumps—yet they make the most of what they have. Then one day, As’ad discovers an American sex doll. When he brings the taboo item home and presents her as a thing of beauty, Taha assaults his little brother for ruining their reputation. As’ad retreats to Hanging Gardens to make a new home for himself and his miraculous find.
When As’ad and his friend, Amir (14), discover the doll can speak, they teach her the language of seduction in Arabic and set her to work. Business rockets, raising their profile lucratively with local teens and dangerously with the local patriarch’s enforcers. As’ad questions their exploitation of the doll, yet before he can save her from further degradation, she’s kidnapped. As’ad and Amir go after the prime suspect, only to discover that he’s turned informant.
The patriarch has As’ad and Amir kidnapped so that he can exact his own cruel and humiliating punishments. As’ad survives to complete the journey he began and reconcile himself to the choices he’s made on his own terms.
Official Selection Venice Film Festival 2022 - World premiere

Synopsis

1940, sisters Thom and Mars have built a machine, L.O.L.A., that can intercept radio and TV broadcasts from the future. This allows them to listen to iconic music before it has been made, place bets knowing what the outcome will be and embrace their inner punk well before the movement came into existence.
Official Selection Edinburgh International Film Festival 2022 - World premiere
Official Selection Locarno International Film Festival 2022 - International premiere

But with the Second World War escalating, the sisters decide to use the machine for good to intercept information from the future that could help with military intelligence. The machine initially proves to be a huge success, rapidly twisting the fortunes of the war against the Nazis.
While Thom becomes intoxicated by L.O.L.A., Mars begins to realise the terrible consequences of its power. As their relationship falls apart, Thom makes a fatal error with her machine that leads to a nightmarish future. Can the sisters’ love for each other save the world they’ve lost?

Synopsis

MEDUSA DELUXE is a murder mystery set in a competitive hairdressing competition. Extravagance and excess collide, as the death of one of their own sows seeds of division in a community whose passion for hair verges on obsession.
Official Selection Locarno Film Festival 2022 - Piazza Grande - World premiere

Synopsis

Lucy, a failed actor who lives in a dysfunctional relationship with agoraphobic screenwriter Paul, is surprised to find herself on the cusp of a none-too-secret affair with her new work colleague, Daniel. The thrill of the chase for a shred of affection takes her mind off her problematic life but she's not sure that she'll ever leave Paul, or that sex with someone else is the true answer to her problems.

Synopsis

An 'afronaut' emerges from the wreckage of a spaceship in the volcanic crater of Mount Nyiragongo. As he descends into the city below, encountering the people of present-day Goma, he begins to understand what he must do to change the future for his people.
Official Selection Locarno Film Festival 2022 - World premiere
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2023

Synopsis

Even as bombs fall on Damascus, Mutaz refuses to flee to the uncertain life of a refugee. His wife, Hala, and daughter, Zeina, must make the choice whether to stay or leave.
Official Selection Venice International Film Festival 2022 - World premiere

Synopsis

Scotland, 1937. Stella, a 20 year-old German Jewish student, finds work on a large country estate owned by the fascist Earl of Rig. With war looming and desperate to find her missing parents, Stella is quickly accepted as one of the family and must hide her true identity to survive. While there she falls in love, with life changing consequences. Based on the folktale of Cinderella, championing the struggle with identity, home and love, STELLA is the tale of a refugee.

Synopsis

In this ghost story from acclaimed filmmaker Joanna Hogg, a middle-aged daughter and her elderly mother must confront long-buried secrets when they return to their former family home, a once-grand manor that has become a nearly vacant hotel brimming with mystery.
Official Selection Venice International Film Festival 2022 - World premiere

Synopsis

When Royal Air Force pilot Lt. Kate Sinclair is shot down over Afghanistan, she finds refuge in an abandoned underground bunker where deadly man-made biological weapons - half human, half alien - are awakened.
Opening Gala FrightFest UK 2022