Projects matching: Erik Knudsen

Synopsis

The film centres around a small remote island off the coast of Greece, which is owned by Mr Goodwin. He has hired three young British people in their late 20s, Kai, Rosie and her brother, Daniel, to refurbish the only habitable house on the island, and its gardens, as part of preparations to let the island and the house out to city guests seeking a spiritual retreat and sanctuary. Daniel, Kai and Rosie have never met Mr Goodwin and are supervised by Mr Goodwin’s assistants who visit the island regularly. A surprise unsolicited visit to the island by a young Greek couple, Loukas and Themis, who seem driven by ideological social justice ambitions, creates a rift between Daniel, Kai and Rosie. Daniel finds himself caught between conflicting loyalties, as those around him gradually descend into a resentful ideological rebellion against the elusive Mr Goodwin and the classical and imperial history his heritage restoration project appears to celebrate. The resulting developments ultimately lead to a fateful confrontation with Mr Goodwin’s only son, when he unexpectedly visits the island in an attempt to rescue the wayward restoration project. No-one saw this coming and the consequences will be far reaching.

Synopsis

Very much a film for our times, TRUE CALLING finds ambitious young UK government minister Josh (David Smith) in a moral crisis on the eve of a critical pre-election debate.

Poised for success, Josh presses pause on his political campaigning and spirits himself to the Yorkshire hometown he hasn’t seen in years. Once there, he strolls the streets and countryside, reflecting on the man he was and contemplating the man he wants to be. Meeting up with his former love Maddy (Eliza Marsland), who herself is facing a crossroads in the form of her imminent wedding, the pair discuss their past, what could have been and how they each now fit into a changing world.

Taking a graceful detour through UK politics, spirituality and purpose, Erik Knudsen’s film tells a timeless story of love, longing and regret, infused with a wry religious flavour reminiscent of landmark cinema classics such as Denys Arcand’s JESUS OF MONTREAL and the warmth and engagement of Richard Linklater’s BEFORE SUNRISE.

Synopsis

What happens when fertility becomes a commodity in a fractured society? Oedipus reborn. Sophocles’ classic of classics adapted for the 21st Century.
A contemporary tragedy about the unravelling of the most fundamental of relationships in society; that between a father, a mother and a child. Set in the context of a world where donor eggs and sperm are freely traded as increasing numbers of people are having to resort to fertility treatment as a consequence of social changes, individual decisions and biological imperatives.

Synopsis

In the midst of parental separation, one boy's silent longing has the power to change everything. On his ninth birthday, Thomas travels with his mother to visit his estranged father who, since an acrimonious divorce from his mother, has abandoned urban living in favour of an isolated rural life in the English Lake District. As a digital native boy, Thomas's encounter with the natural world, and his gradual understanding of the pivotal connection he provides for his, ultimately lonely, parents leads to realisation and discovery. There are things his parents don't know about each other that only he can reveal. Perhaps he has the power and the means to change everything.

Synopsis

Set in rural and urban Britain, The Silent Accomplice is a story seen through the perspective of water that flows from a spring to the sea. This ever-present silent protagonist engages with people in often intimate moments in their lives, giving us an unusual and intimate snap shot of contemporary living. Episodic and peripatetic in construction, and poetically blending fiction and documentary, the narrative weaves its way in and out of specific people’s lives to reveal a Britain with hidden and unspoken disparities and aspirations.

Using simple and ritch visual and aural imagery, The Silent Accomplice embraces the notion of silence to drive a narrative that creates an unusual experiential journey. From the sublime to the mundane, the peaceful to the violent, we are presented with a view of contemporary British life not commonly seen.

Synopsis

Set in the small Cuban town of San Antonio de los Baños, Vainilla Chip tells the story of an ordinary day for an elderly ice cream maker, Javier Casanova, whose every day has become painfully pierced by an acute sense of longing for his deceased wife.

Synopsis

'The living mythology of gold in Ghana'. Heart of Gold is a poetic documentary exploring the changing relationship people in the Akim Abuakwa region of Ghana have with gold.

Synopsis

Erik Knudsen's latest feature film is about identical teenage twin girls, one of whom has cancer, who escape their stifling middle-class home life in search of their natural father, whom they have not seen since infancy. Their adventure, fuelled by a unique spiritual bond and aspiration, leads them through a northern British city during one night, in which they experience, through episodic encounters and events, the underbelly of their society. One final major obstacle tests their faith and resolve, and leads to fundamental change for both of them. This is an intimate and intense story taking us into the alienation of two teenage girls caught between conflicting values and allegiances.

Synopsis

On losing his job, Philip Brannigan finds himself unable to return home.  His entire material world is collapsing. In his confused state, he adopts a religious sandwich board found in the park. And so begins his journey across the UK.
 
What at first seems like the aimless wandering of a confused man, gradually turns into a specific march towards Brannigan's childhood home. Brannigan experiences a number of encounters which are fuelled by the message on his board. 'The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth'. These are experiences that range from the sublime to the brutal, the mundane to the relevatory; experiences and encounters that reveal a changing external social landscape, and an evolving inner spiritual world.
 
Arriving on the east coast, Brannigan is faced with the reality that there is no home to go back to, no past in which to take shelter, and in his deepest moment of despair he discovers, through his interaction with the sea, a new strength and a new way of understanding his life.
 
In this experiential story, we are invited to  immerse ourselves in the detail of Brannigan's experience and see the imagery of the everyday contemporary world in a mythological and mystical light.

Synopsis

Signs of Life is a film about a young woman who wanted to die, but didn't quite make it. Told entirely from the perspective of the central character, Sarah Ives, it is the moving story of a young woman trapped in a body diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state. She can perceive what is going on around her, but is unable to intervene, to explain, or to express her feelings. Signs of life is an intimate film about the will to live and the power of thought in that process.