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.
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.
Daniel, an ambitious and handsome detective sergeant (Nick Moran) takes on the tough contemporary world of a teenage girl in Brighton. But to the dismay of his police partner (Victoria Scarborough), he is relentlessly stalked by a fifteen year-old gang leader (Lara Belmont) who dreams of escape for them both to a romantic tropical Island. As their mutual and forbidden desire increases, events move inexorably to a denouement of tortured and sexual longing and eventual tragedy.
Hayley's gang of fourteen year-old girls are on the rampage, mugging young male tourists on Brighton's sea-front. Hayley is half-adolescent and half-woman, as raw and violent as any male counterpart, and just as calculating. She is determined that they will escape their poverty, their crumbling families and dead end prospects by stealing enough money to leave Brighton. The gang thinks she wants to go to London. However, secretly Hayley has almost saved up enough money to take them to Bali, a tropical paradise full, she imagines, of beautiful, androgynous young men. Here she and the gang will find the happiness they crave.
When Hayley sees Daniel, a young detective, arresting a robbery suspect she is transfixed. Charismatic, handsome, tough but also strangely vulnerable, he personifies her desires. She falls in love and lust. She must have him at any cost.
When a wedding comes to a small town in the Indian countryside, it's a good opportunity for Mrs Bakshi to find eligible mates for her four daughters, but the smart and headstrong Lalita is determined to marry for love. Sparks fly when she meets the handsome American Will Darcy, but is it love or hate?
Gurinder Chadha directs this Bollywood-style re-telling of Jane Austen's classic tale of marriage and manners, transplanted to modern-day India, England and America, and complete with lavish musical spectacle.
What does Isky, a young Croatian immigrant, do when life seems just too black and white? A piece of pink bubblegum takes him on a journey to discover the power of his imagination.
Ricky (played by Ashley Walters, aka So Solid Crew's Asher D) is just out of a young offenders' institute, heading home to Hackney and determined to go straight. Instead, he heads straight for trouble when he becomes involved in a street confrontation, siding with his best friend Wisdom (Leon Black) against a local rude boy. The trouble escalates into a series of tit for tat incidents that threaten to spiral out of control. Ricky's 12-year-old brother Curtis (Luke Fraser), hero-worships Ricky, though he appears smart enough to know he doesn't want to follow his example. Yet, despite the stern warnings from his mother (Claire Perkins) and support from her friends in the community, might Ricky's bad boy allure be too attractive for Curtis to resist?
A company called Cortex exists. It advertises its services by way of the Internet. The role of this organisation is simple: if you want somebody dead, simply push a few buttons and pay. The organisation collects the money and immediately finds the best professional hit man for the job. The killers are the first human beings to be implanted with a miniature "Eyecam". This permits them to record their work. Their work is then downloaded, shown to the client and ultimately sold by Cortex to those who can afford it.
Tom Lawson is one of these Cortex killers. He doesn't know why he has to kill these people. He only knows he has to do it and follows the orders.
He never asks questions. And the only reason he does it is for the money. He has just been commissioned to kill a little black kid. But today this killing will lead him to an unexpected love story and to his last days within the organisation.
Based on real events, Deadlines is a surreal, harrowing, sometimes darkly comic thriller set in wartime Beirut. Alex Randal, a young reporter with far more bravado than experience, arrives in the war torn city to cover the deadly double bombing of America's US Marine barracks and France's paratrooper base. In the mayhem he meets Julia Muller, a beautiful, enigmatic photographer. Like Beirut itself, nothing with Julia is what it seems. Alluring and wildly self-destructive, Julia feeds Alex a tip on a story that, in his eagerness, he runs after only a cursory check. The story, revealing that a murdered Lebanese Army captain was in fact an Israeli spy, puts him on the front page of newspapers around the world. It also leads to a series of deadly reprisals that, at first, seem to confirm the story.
Alex and Julia grow closer as they work together, but signs of a dark secret in Julia's past start to emerge. Attracted and intrigued, Alex pursues her; the closer he gets, the more dangerous she seems to become. Alex's world comes crashing down when he learns that Julia's tip was bogus, that his story was false - making him partially responsible for the slaugther that ensued. Alex then faces the starkest choice of his life: leave Lebanon beaten, broken and humiliated or risk his life to discover the truth behind the web of lies. With danger lurking at every turn, Alex tries to right the wrong he committed and, in the process, finally becomes the reporter he set out to be. In a nail biting finale, Alex helps Julian overcome her own deadly dilemma, allowing both characters to find redemption amidst the rubble of the city.
Nine year-old Frankie and his single mum Lizzie have been on the move ever since Frankie can remember, most recently arriving in a seaside Scottish town. Wanting to protect her deaf son from the truth that they've run away from his father, Lizzie has invented a story that he is away at sea on the HMS Accra. Every few weeks, Lizzie writes to Frankie a make-believe letter from his father, telling of his adventures in exotic lands.
As Frankie tracks the ship's progress around the globe, he discovers that it is due to dock in his hometown. With the real HMS Accra arriving in only a fortnight, Lizzie must choose between telling Frankie the truth or finding the perfect stranger to play Frankie's father for just one day.
For Rachael Crossman, (Laura Fraser) the remote island settlement of Devil's Gate may well be where she comes from but it is a place she never thought she would go back to. Her mother left when she was young and, ever since, Rachael has been searching on the mainland for her, searching for answers, searching for belonging and searching for a purpose to her life.
So, when Rachael's former childhood sweetheart, Rafe (Callum Blue) calls from Devil's Gate, Rachael is not interested. Not until she hears that her father, Jake (Tom Bell) is dying.
Meanwhile, Matt a city boy who has nursed Jake, knows that something is wrong. The terse and alcoholic Jake may well be unwell but he's not dying. Matt decides to stay in Devil's Gate and find out why she has been tricked to come home.
When Rachael arrives, it is obvious Rafe was trying to entice her back to rekindle their former romance. Matt, too, feels a bond between him and Rachael, much to the annoyance of the ultra-possessive Rafe.
The tense love triangle is complicated by the fact that an old hermit, Eagle, seems to have long=lost clues to the disappearance of Rachael's mother. Is Eagle hiding a dark secret, or is he just going crazy after too many long, dark nights in Devil's Gate?
As local policeman Clem gets drawn onto the trail, it soon becomes obvious that there is more to Devil's Gate than the remote landscape can hide. Is Rachael's mother still alive? What happened to her to make her disappear? And why is Rachael so scared to go back to her home?
Not many people live in Devil's Gate - and those that do will never be the same again.
