Tina is getting ready for a blind date. Her friend Lily is waiting for the guy in the designated bar, to tell Tina whether he is worth coming for. Tina ends up being driven to the date by her ex, Leo. As Leo tries to get back together and they fight, Lily fancies the date herself and pretends to be Tina. In the end they all find each other at one table. But who will leave with whom?
Flipping back and forth between the 18th century and the hapless efforts of the 21st century filmakers, Tristram Shandy is the making of a movie adapted from the notoriously unfilmable English literature masterpiece, The Life and Opinons of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, written by Laurence Sterne.
The story begins with Tristram Shandy (Steve Coogan) narrating his life story as he sees it. Crammed with literary jokes and dark humour, Shandy's warped childhood tales are constantly interrupted by his family and household, inadvertently revealing far more about himself than any conventional autobiography.
At the dramatic moment of Tristram's birth, the 1st Assistant Director calls cut, marking the end of a filming day on the set of Tristram Shandy. We then see Steve Coogan, the other actors and crew through the course of a chaotic evening on set. Steve Coogan's wife arrives with their six month old baby, a journalist is chasing him about a scandalous story, his agent has arrived with a load of Hollywood scripts and the film financiers are threatening to pull the plug.
A clever, post-modern take on the construction of a film, from an intricate, hilariously complex autobiographical novel.
Shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, Viola finds herself in the midst of a fairytale. Shot entirely on location in the Greek islands, this jazz-age take on Shakespeare is a laugh-out-loud portrayal of romance at its most chaotic. It follows Viola’s strange and often hilarious encounters with the inhabitants of Illyria, and her struggle to survive in an unknown and bewildering country. An unrepentant dreamer, she finds happiness by retreating into her imagination – only to discover that, in Illyria, fantasy can turn into reality overnight. But if everyone’s dreams can change the world, then you’d better hope that no-one starts dreaming about you – especially not Illyria’s love-struck Countess, who’s hell-bent on getting her happy ending - A tribute to imagination, friendship, and imaginary friends, Twelfth Night’s laughter is tempered with a touch of melancholy, and another of wonder. ‘Just for once, you should believe the hype’ (BBC Radio). Dream on.
Future Legend has made several fictional films covering a range of genres. Always setting themselves high standards, their emphasis has been to produce high quality short films with a clear narrative, strong characters and wry humour.
In their latest production, ‘Up The Hill Backwards’, Future Legend has emulated what you might categorise as the classic European film style. The Director Richard Mann has followed his cinematic influences, such as Jacques Tati, Laurel & Hardy and the Ealing Comedies, to produce a highly stylised and distinctive film.
Set in a lively and energetic café ‘Up the Hill Backwards’ follows the mishaps of our hero, Charlie (played by Richard Mann). Charlie has just moved to town and is enjoying the active café culture when he catches the eye of Nadine (Beccy Killgariff). Stopping him in his tracks she hands Charlie her number with the intention of meeting for a date.
However, Nadine realises that Charlie isn’t all he is cracked up to be.
Charlie's new phone is behaving strangely. It's almost like it knows him. Almost. Except Charlie's phone doesn't want to keep what it knows to itself. So it's telling. Everyone.
Wah-Wah is a semi-autobiographical 'coming of age at the end of an Age' story, told through the eyes of young Ralph Compton. Set during the last gasp of the British Empire in Swaziland, South East Africa, in 1969, the plot focuses on the dysfunctional Compton family whose gradual disintegration mirrors the end of British rule.
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.
All families have crazy times, And the the MacDowells are no exception.
Bobby MacDowell, the youngest of three, looks back on the last two weeks of normality in his childhood - the last two weeks before his mum became ill. Trouble is, his sister seems to be constantly shagging yet another new boyfriend, and his brother seems to have some hair-brained scheme to reveal the identity of a newspaper editor. And not one of the kids has time to listen to their mum.
Wicham Road is a humourous and heart-warming story of a family: a fast paced and quick-witted slice of life in which the MacDowells, have lived in a kind of limbo for the past ten years, are finally forced to face the future.
Yasmin (Archie Panjabi- Bend it like Beckham) is a spirited women whose life in the North of England has become a precarious balancing act as she attempts both to please her traditional Pakistani family and enjoy the freedoms of western life. Having rebelled against her family as a teenager, Yasmin yields to the demands of her widowed father and agrees to marry a cousin 'from home'. The omens are not good when the goat-herder from a Pakistani village meets the vivacious, westernised Yasmin.
After the shocking events of 9/11, Yasmin's life begins to change; her innate sense of confidence starts to evaporate and she becomes increasingly ostracised at work. Yasmin is only jolted out of her crisis of identity when she witnesses the brutal internment of her husband under the draconian rules of the Anti-Terrorism Act. The injustice of this event forces Yasmin to re-evaluate her faith, her culture and her relationships. The scene is set for a compelling and and topical personal drama of what it means to be Asian, Muslim and British in the 21st century.
Written by Simon Beaufoy (highly acclaimed writer of The Full Monty), the film is an emotionally resonant story, threaded with a rich vein of wit, irony and juxtapostions.
In 1948 during the Greek civil war, 28 thousand children, Greek and Macedonian, were taken from their villages by the communist-led Democratic Army and raised in orphanages in Eastern Europe. The Greeks never allowed the Macedonian children back. 50 years later the 'children' marked the anniversary of their journey. They dance and sing and yearn for their lost villages. The Greek civil war has faded into history, but the Macedonian 'children' remain its forgotten victims.
Academy Award winner Brenda Fricker (My Left Foot) and Golden Globe nominee Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) lead a stellar ensemble cast that also features Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) and John Lynch (In the Name of the Father) in this heart-stopping story of love and faith amid a world of shadows and secrets.
In a small town in Ireland, life centres on the quiet comings and goings of families that have lived there for generations, and the highest hope of every mother is that her son is accepted into the local seminary. But when a young priest mysteriously kills himself, everything—and everyone—changes.
Tipped off to suspicious circumstances surrounding the suicide, local reporter David Foley begins digging around and connects the priest’s death to other unexplained incidents. While Daniel fights in vain to clear his name, Foley uncovers a cold-blooded and secret world that some would kill to protect. Then an insider leaks the news of the suicide and its cover-up to The Irish Times, and in the blink of an eye the world is watching…and now, everyone must decide if the truth is worth dying for.
