Projects matching: Pawel Pawlikowski

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

A college lecturer flees to Paris after a scandal costs him his job. In the City of Lights, he meets a widow who might be involved in a series of murders.

Synopsis

In the jungles of Borneo, an Iban father on the cusp of old age begins a river journey to seek medical help for his sick child. Along the way, the boy is troubled by recurring visions of a strange figure who appears on the river bank. As the journey progresses, father and son are drawn inexorably to a final encounter with the mythical 'transformed' shaman who dwells deep inside the jungle.

Semangat was made by working closely with one Iban longhouse community from Sarawak, Malaysia with whom the story was devised and filmed. Set in the jungles of Borneo, the basis of the film explores the conflict that exists between ancient animist beliefs and modern approaches to illness. The main protagonists of the film are a real father and son, and a retired shaman from this community.

Semangat is a micro-budget hybrid docu-fiction film funded by The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation, The UK Film Council/CTBF John Brabourne Award and Screen South. It has been produced under the creative guidance of award winning filmmaker, Pawel Pawlikowski (Last Resort, My Summer of Love). It has been co-produced with The National Film and Television School.

Synopsis

Mona has just got hold of a brilliant moped that only cost a tenner. No engine but still dirt-cheap. She lives with her brother, Phil, who used to run a pub before he found God and poured away all the booze. Tamsin is rich, spoilt and trying to live a life of seductive decadence.
 
Mona and Tamsin meet on the moors, above their quiet Yorkshire village and begin an intense, unlikely friendship. While Tamsin is tragic and fantastical, Mona is rough and witty. Tamsin is quickly charmed and Mona is hooked. Both want to escape their lives but Phil wants to save them, and everybody else. Mona wants the old, dangerous Phil back; the brother that she loved, but Tamsin wants to see what it takes to break him. As the lives of the three characters converge, a sexually charged struggle between good and evil leads to a dramatic and shocking climax.
 

Synopsis

A rare collaboration between BBC Films and BBC Documentaries, Last Resort is a moving love story which deals with the controversial issue of asylum seekers.

Tanya, young and naîve, leaves Moscow with her street-wise 10-year-old son Artiom, to meet her English fiancé. But after he fails to turn up at the airport, Tanya and her son find themselves virtually imprisoned in a deserted seaside resort where all refugees are forced to live. They have no passports, no money, no rights.

Desperate to escape a nightmarish world of misfits and no-hopers, Tanya forges an unusual alliance with amusement arcade manager Alfie, an alliance which soon develops into something more. But is he just another man who will let her down, or will Tanya and Artiom finally escape?

'Paul Pawlikowski was given free rein to select the subject matter and devise the drama. He used improvisation, documentary methods and a documentary-sized crew. The end result is high-quality, low-cost film-making that has a power and individuality rarely found in more conventional drama,' says producer Ruth Caleb.