Projects matching: Ben Hopkins

Synopsis

A gentle black comedy about a confused, washed up film director, Emil, who is invited by a nascent state to make a national epic in an obscure Caucasus Republic ruled by an eccentric and corrupt dictator. When down and out Academy award-winning British film director Emil Miller receives an invitation to the Embassy of the Autonomous Republic of Karastan, little does he know that he will be embarking on one of the wildest journeys of his already diverse and colourful career.

Synopsis

Set in Turkey, a market trader sees an opportunity to make his fortune when he is offered a mission to cross the Balkan border to purchase medicine. This insightful film captures the morally complex world of the black market.

Synopsis

Until 25 years ago, the Kirghiz tribe lived a quasi-Iron Age existence in one of the remotest places on earth. Now, having migrated an amazing five times, they live in Turkey, a tribe divided. Those over 30 pine for their nomadic history and the rugged mountains of their homeland; the young have a modern education and live in a world of pop music and internet cafés.

A feature-length mix of the ethnographic and authored documentary forms, the collaboration between distinctive director Ben Hopkins and the Kirghiz tribe makes this film a unique record of a unique people.

Synopsis

The film tells the touching story of victims of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Laos and Afghanistan, turning their homelands into a hostile environment for a very long time. It is less a reportage and more an audio-visual reflection on these issues and the landscapes in which they are acted out.

Synopsis

On a transatlantic quest to discover the identity of The Muse, filmmaker and artist Kathy Hill asks other creatives "What Inspires You? Is It Divine?" Features interviws with movie star Rutger Hauer, Oxford Classic don Jasper Griffin, Hollywood Script Consultant Linda Seger and Bafta Award winning film director Ben Hopkins.

Synopsis

The last day of creation. A stranger arrives in London. No one knows who he is or where he has come from. By the time he leaves, the entire universe will have been erased.





The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz is a black comedy about the Apocalypse.





A manhole opens just outside the M25, London's orbital motorway. A man crawls out. He wears clothes from another century, his face is pale and strange. His name is Tomas Katz.





By the motorway, he hails a taxi. After a brief discussion with the taxi driver, something strange happens . . . Tomas Katz is now dressed as the Taxi Driver and is driving the cab. The Taxi Driver is dressed as Tomas Katz, and is standing on the hard shoulder.





Tomas Katz, dressed as the taxi driver, heads into the centre of London.





Outside the Ministry of Fisheries, the Tomas Katz-Taxi Driver picks up the Minister and takes him to a press conference. By the time they arrive at their destination, the Minister has transformed into the Taxi Driver, and Tomas Katz has become the Minister.





As the Minister, he enters the press conference and declares war on the Middle East.

Synopsis

Simon Magus is the poignant and magical story of an outcast called Simon, who is treated with a mixture of fear, suspicion and guarded affection by the Jewish and Christian inhabitants of a village in 19th century Poland. It is also the story of the village itself, a community in crisis now that the railway has arrived, passing the village by, taking away all its trade, and threatening its future.


Simon has visions and strange dreams, a fantastical view of the world. For some villagers, Simon is a harmless idiot, but in a place where people still believe in angels and charms, to others he is a magician in league with the devil himself.


The crisis comes in the battle to build a railway station and save the village. Maximillian Hase, moneyed, ruthless and determined to succeed, uses Simon's feelings of isolation to his own ends, employing him as a spy to root out his competition in the village's Jewish community.


The Christian Squire, a sensitive and lonely man with a passion for poetry, must be persuaded to allow the station to be built on his land. Dovid, a poor young Jew, realises that an appreciation of poetry is the way to succeed in the railway station bid. Only the city educated Sarah from the Jewish community shares this passion for poetry, but she and the Squire have never yet spoken. Dovid enlists Sarah's help to secure his bid.


Simon is seduced by Hase's bribes and is unwittingly playing a critical role in the battle for the railway. . .