BFI FILMMAKERS 12 ISSUE 3 | SUMMER 2015

04 WELCOME A word from Ben Roberts on the increasingly ambitious projects on the BFI Film Fund’s slate this year

05 BFI FLARE Five emerging filmmakers selected for the inaugural BFI Flare Mentorship programme talk about their aspirations

06 SHORTS TO FEATURES Filmmakers Michael Lennox, Rachel Tunnard and Aleem Khan on graduating to features 16 08 A SYRIAN LOVE STORY Fearless documentarian Sean McAllister on the challenges he faced with his latest film

09 SPACESHIP Alex Taylor talks about his debut feature, funded through the low-budget iFeatures scheme

10 IONA Scott Graham on his second-feature film set on a remote Scottish island

12 SUFFRAGETTE Sarah Gavron, Faye Ward, Alison Owen and Abi Morgan on bringing the story of the Suffragettes to the big screen 06 08 16 HIGH-RISE Ben Wheatley, Amy Jump and Jeremy Thomas bring J G Ballard’s 1975 novel to modern-day audiences

20 THE LOBSTER Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos on his transition to English-language films 09 10 22 ETHEL & ERNEST CONTENTS Producer Camilla Deakin and director Roger Mainwood bring Raymond Briggs’ classic book to life

Cover photo of ABI MORGAN, FAYE WARD AND SARAH GAVRON by PAUL MARC MITCHELL, London, June 2015 Powered by Film3Sixty, 45-51 Whitfield Street, London W1T 4HD 20 22 Managing Director & Publisher NICK LEESE Editor DIANA LODDERHOSE Co-editor TINA McFARLING Creative Director PAUL MARC MITCHELL Printed production by REALISED IN PRINT

All information correct at time of going to press. 360 Publishing gratefully acknowledges permission to use copyright material. Copyright holders are acknowledged on the page containing the individual copyright item. Every effort has been made to trace and contact copyright holders. If there are any inadvertent omissions we apologise to those concerned, and ask that you contact us so that we can correct any oversight as soon as possible. Carey Mulligan on the set of Suffragette WELCOME...

hanks for picking up this imprisonment) to bring his award-winning Summer 2015 issue of BFI A Syrian Love Story to the screen. T FILMMAKERS, which we hope Plus Yorgos Lanthimos discusses the you’ll enjoy reading on the beach, or at crossover to his first English-language least use as a fan. feature with the Cannes prize-winning The Lobster. All of the films featured have been We’ve talked to a number of new and made with the creative and financial emerging filmmakers about their career Andrew Haigh and Charlotte support of our Film Fund team at the BFI, plans, including those who are currently Rampling making 45 Years using funds from the National Lottery moving from making shorts to their first ‘good cause’ money that allows us to features, and the five emerging LGBT get behind ambitious, risky, creative writers and directors who took part in The cover of our last issue featured Meanwhile in the Lake District, acclaimed filmmaking across the UK and beyond. an immersive mentor programme run by Andrew Haigh, whose 45 Years has since television director Phillipa Lowthorpe is And there’s certainly an abundance BFI Flare to deepen their understanding premiered to great acclaim and won Silver shooting not only her first feature but of ambition in this issue. of the film industry, allowing them to Bears in Berlin for Charlotte Rampling and the first-ever feature adaptation of the Our cover features the team behind develop their storytelling voices with Tom Courtenay in addition to the Michael children’s classic Swallows and Amazons this autumn’s Suffragette, an impressive extra confidence. Powell Award in Edinburgh for Best - a labour of love for producer Nick Barton undertaking for director Sarah Gavron On the subject of new and British Film. We also talked to producers and writer Andrea Gibb. who is making only her second feature emerging filmmakers, for those of you Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey in the On the back cover we’ve planted film here (after 2007’s Brick Lane). who are making your own short films or last issue about John Crowley and Nick a first look at a project that’s about as Suffragette’s ambition lies not just in the embarking on a writing career, you should Hornby’s adaptation of Colm Tobin’s ambitious as you can get for a truly scale of the production (which was the visit our recently launched BFI NET. Brooklyn, which premiered at Sundance independent UK film: 12-year-old first film ever to shoot inside the House WORK platform, where we’ve gathered and sold to Fox Searchlight in one of the newcomer Sennia Nanua stars in Colm of Commons), but at the very heart of its information on the available funding biggest deals in Sundance history. McCarthy’s forthcoming feature debut, story about the heroic campaign to forever resources around the UK. You can also And the future is bright. In addition She Who Brings Gifts, which shot over change the rights of women in Britain. upload examples of your early work for us to the many films featured in these two months in and around Birmingham. You can also read about the look at in our search to discover original pages, we’re behind a number of exciting Colm is another of our great TV directors, ambitions of Ben Wheatley and Amy and talented new voices. More information projects that have been in production over best known for his work on Peaky Jump, who have turned Jeremy Thomas’s on this is available on the inside front the last few months. Blinders and Sherlock, who worked with a decades-long dream of adapting J G cover of this issue. Andrea Arnold has finished shooting screenplay adapted by writer Mike Carey Ballard’s impossible High-Rise into a Looking back on the first half of American Honey with Shia LeBoeuf in from his own novel. towering reality. Then there’s documentary 2015, there’s been continued success the US (and is there any greater ambition A VFX-heavy sci-fi thriller with a filmmaker Sean McAllister, who spent for British filmmaking both in the UK than that?), and The Guard and Calvary touch of existential sadness; a first-time many years defying the odds (and facing and internationally. filmmaker John Michael McDonagh, has feature director; a first screenplay from its wrapped his comic War on Everyone, writer; emerging producers Camille Gatin starring Alexander Skarsgaard and (Shadow Dancer) and Angus Lamont Michael Pena, shot mostly in New Mexico. (‘71) helming the shoot; a cast including Ben Wheatley hasn’t had to travel Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine and so far to shoot his 1970s Boston-set Glenn Close alongside and a young shoot-em-up Free Fire, which as I write is newcomer who appears in almost every shooting behind an Argos on the edge of scene...And of course as they’ve only just Brighton with Armie Hammer, Brie Larson, wrapped they’ve still got a long way to go. Sharlto Copley and Cillian Murphy. More next year.

Saoirse Ronan in Brooklyn BEN ROBERTS Director of the BFI Film Fund (Left to right) Scout Stuart, Aleem Khan, Islay Bell-Webb, Rachelle Constant, Claire Kurylowski (Photo: Tim Francis)

FIVE EMERGING LGBT FILMMAKERS TAKE PART IN A NEW PROGRAMME DESIGNED TO DEVELOP THEIR INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE BFI FLARE FI Flare showcases the best more like a friend than a mentor. I was captivated by the film, the story, its My mentor Ester Martin Bergsmark queer cinema from around Mentor: Hong Khaou, director of characters and their struggle growing up whose film Something Must Break B the world and earlier this year BAFTA-nominated Lilting within two cultures. I remember feeling screened at the LFF and Flare, has been London’s LGBT festival extended its incredibly awkward because we all knew an influential force in the development for reach with the launch of the BFI Flare Islay Bell-Webb, writer something was being revealed to us, this trajectory. Being able to exchange Pilot Mentorship scheme in partnership I have an Elvish tattoo and it quotes about us, through this film. thoughts on both the process and story with Creative Skillset. Arwen’s last line in her first scene in After studying film directing at the has been both affirming and enriching. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the University of Westminster, I made my first Ester immediately understood what I’m The initiative gives five emerging Ring: ‘Noro lim, Asfaloth, noro lim!’ Noro film, Diana, which premiered in 2009 at trying to say with the film, so it’s really LGBT filmmakers the opportunity to lim is Sindarin for ‘ride hard’. Arwen is what was then the BFI London Lesbian helped crystallise my ideas. To have this be mentored by a senior figure from encouraging her horse, Asfaloth, as they and Gay Film Festival. It played at more dialogue from the very beginning has the film industry in order to develop carry Frodo back to Rivendell, pursued by than 30 festivals internationally and made for a strong start. their knowledge of the business, forge a hoard of angry ring wraiths. travelling with it on the festival circuit was Mentor: Ester Martin Bergsmark professional relationships and enhance As a 12-year-old girl witnessing it a great learning experience. (Maggie in Wonderland, their passion for cinema. for the first time in the cinema, I loved My latest short, Three Brothers, was She Male Snails) Here, we meet the filmmakers who this moment. Arwen is the first woman commissioned through Film London and took part. to really speak in the entire trilogy. But premiered at the BFI London Film Festival Rachelle Constant, producer when I began looking for the sorts of before it received a BAFTA nomination. “I just don’t believe that you can’t make Scout Stuart, writer films that would star Arwen rather than I’m currently developing and writing two anything happen. I think if something’s I am a working class girl from Manchester, Frodo, I couldn’t find them. So I became feature projects, After Love and Medusa. good and you believe in it, and you care a bit on the shy side and I’ve always had determined to write my own. I am delighted to have someone about it, and you give it love and nurture an interest in observing human behaviour. Whether one day I get to write like Ben Roberts as my mentor. He has it, it’s going to happen.” Up until her death last year, I’d gone to the Batwoman film (Batwoman is the a wealth of knowledge and experience I read this quote in an interview with the cinema with my Nana every week. In first lesbian superhero with her own and he’s been incredibly open and Jerry Weintraub when at University. my late teens, after watching Shadows by comic book), or get one of my current generous with me. I always wanted to be a producer and John Cassavetes, I saved up for a camera sci-fi scripts off the ground, it is to these Mentor: Ben Roberts, Director, was confident that I too could make and made several experimental short films high-concept stories that I am pulled BFI Lottery Film Fund things happen. I got a First Class Honours with willing friends. to as a writer. I want women and queer degree in Media Arts at Royal Holloway, Doing this gave me the confidence characters leading the films that I enjoy Claire Kurylowski, director University of London. to enrol at Manchester School of Art the most – action films, superhero In the past two years I have lived in Now, after nearly 10 years in TV to study Film and Video (2008). Since adaptations and fantasy epics. Because London, my work has been influenced development with experience ranging graduating, I’ve been developing a slate of ultimately until we’re there, at the heart by the hindsight of the three years I from ITV’s Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple work as a screenwriter, whilst directing the of these cultural signifiers, we’re going spent living in Berlin. The idea of queer and Poirot to the popular BBC Continuing occasional music video and art film (Thus to remain these marginalised figures in diasporas, intersecting identities as Dramas shows, I decided to step spoke the wulf, Deus ex). In 2013, the cinema, and I want to do better than that, well as finding ways to present feminist sideways and produce a short film project Cornerhouse (now HOME) commissioned for myself, and for queer little 12-year-old perspectives guide my work. I felt that, quite literally, landed on my lap. my short animated screenplay Skrimsli. girls everywhere. there was a disconnect between what Through Film London’s London Calling In 2014, my debut feature treatment Mentor: Russell T. Davies OBE (Doctor I had read and seen and what I had Plus scheme, I produced Two Dosas, Mud was selected for iFeatures and I Who, Cucumber, Banana and Tofu) experienced so I became determined to which premiered at the BFI London Film wrote the short The Pig Child through show these stories of voices I had not yet Festival and won numerous awards, Creative England’s iShorts, which was Aleem Khan, writer and director seen represented on screen. Collaborating including Best Comedy Short Film at the selected for the Edinburgh International I grew up in a large English-Pakistani with artists and sharing stories with friends London Short Film Festival and Academy Film Festival, Palm Springs and family with four sisters and a brother, so in London and therefore humanising the Award-qualifying festival Aspen ShortFest. Encounters amongst others. Sliding, there’s always been plenty of family drama perspective of these experiences became I’m passionate about emerging, my latest short film as screenwriter, has to draw inspiration from. It was my father a transformative journey for finding new diverse talent and currently developing been greenlit by Creative England and I have to thank for igniting my initial forms of expression. a number of projects, including an will shoot this autumn with director Lucy interest in filmmaking. He always had a Since BFI Flare, I’ve been ambitious short film set in China and a Campbell. I am currently writing Existence camcorder in his hand, filming us kids at developing a short film, which intertwines feature film based on a true story. I’m Doubtful (working title), a short film set parties, schools plays, really whenever a personal story with wider discourses, always on the lookout for ideas that are in Manchester that I will direct and Anna he could. His passion for documenting exploring the intersections of feminine bold, compelling and original. Seifert-Speck will executive produce. our lives found its way into me and has performativity within its half-Chinese, Mentors: Mike Goodridge, CEO of My mentor is Hong Khaou, who was influenced the kind of filmmaker I’ve lesbian identified protagonist. The Protagonist Pictures, former editor immediately warm and open with me. He’s grown up to be. short will also be a way to explore and Screen International, and BAFTA- been very honest about his own personal When I saw East is East, aged 14, later promote the ideas of a feature nominated producer Gavin Humphries journey - his struggles and vulnerabilities with my family in the living room, I first film we’re developing which is and Film Partnership Manager at as well as successes - and therefore he is experienced the unifying power of cinema. aligned with the mentorship scheme. Creative Skillset

BFI.ORG.UK 05 FROM SHORTS FILMMAKERS MICHAEL LENNOX, RACHEL TUNNARD AND ALEEM KHAN TALK ABOUT TAKING THE PLUNGE ON THEIR FIRST FEATURES

Riley Hamilton, Aaron Lynch, Charlene McKenna and Martin McCann in Boogaloo and Graham, Belfast

he beauty of a short film is dramatically different ways of telling are out of sequence, so it’s about working humour or horror. When you look into the that anything is possible, stories,” Lennox says, who had six shorts out how it all fits together.” CVs of most filmmakers, you usually T as Northern Irish filmmaker under his belt, including the European BFI senior production and find a short film somewhere in there Michael Lennox will testify. Film Award and Locarno-nominated Back development executive Lizzie Francke, whether it’s Stephen Frears, Ridley Scott Of Beyond, before producer Robert Jones who has worked with a plethora of new or Rachel Tunnard.” “You can make a film about took a punt on him to direct A Patch and emerging filmmakers throughout her Sheffield-based Tunnard, who is chickens with your friends in Belfast, Of Fog. career, notes, “it’s one thing being able to currently in post-production on her first and nine months later you find yourself Backed by Northern Ireland Screen engage audiences in a 15 minute short, feature How To Live Yours, starring being nominated for an Oscar®,” says (who also funded Lennox’s first year at but it’s a big challenge being able to Jodie Whittaker, worked as an editor the National Film and Television School the NFTS) and the BFI, the Belfast-set tell a story in long form.” for 10 years before taking the plunge graduate, who received the call to say his feature stars Stephen Graham as a lonely Still, she says the short film is an into directing. short Boogaloo and Graham made the security guard who blackmails essential stepping stone in the career “I learnt so much from cutting Oscar® shortlist on the eve of shooting his a celebrated novelist. of any filmmaker wanting to make the other people’s films over the years, and I first feature. For Lennox, managing the sheer leap into features, not only in terms of was lucky to assist some brilliant editors Six months later, and with the edit volume of scenes involved in shooting his personal development, but as a way of who taught me not only about editing, on his darkly comic psychological thriller first feature was the biggest challenge. demonstrating a filmmakers’ potential to but storytelling,” says Tunnard, whose A Patch Of Fog nearly complete, the “In a short you can keep it all in your head risk-averse investors. breakthrough moment came when director describes shooting his debut as because it’s only a few days, but with a “As a funder, you’re looking for the she was working as an editor on Scott “a baptism of fire”. feature you are shooting for five weeks, DNA of a filmmaker and shorts can show Graham’s BFI-backed debut Shell. “Short films and features are trying to balance 140 scenes, all of which someone’s ability to deal with pathos, or “It was the best film school ever.”

Yousuf Hussain, Zain Muhammad Zafar and Muhammad Mujahid-Ali Shahzad in Three Brothers, Medway Towns, Kent

06 BFI.ORG.UK TO FEATURES

On set, Tunnard had turned the directly related to the feature – they could a shorts scheme funded through the BFI lot of pressure to make choices you don’t cutting room into “a mess of graphs see what they were buying in to,” NET.WORK and aimed at emerging black, necessarily agree with when it comes to and cartoons and drawings of men and explains Tunnard. Asian and minority ethnic filmmakers. things like cast,” adds Tunnard, who has women bickering” and she says “when Emotional Fusebox went on to “It can be a really lonely existence two further projects in development. Chris Collins [former BFI production and secure BAFTA and BIFA nominations, an when you’re writing at home, so these “I’ve seen people make a short film with development executive] came on set, he incredible feat for the first-time director. schemes are a great networking their mates and then they’ve gone on to looked at the walls and said, you should “Awards give you validation and the opportunity in an industry based so cast actors in their feature film and it’s write about it.” sense that people are responding well much on relationships,” says Khan, been rubbish.” His words encouraged her and to your material,” says London-based who studied directing at the University Khan, who is currently developing she then went on to take part in Creative upcoming filmmaker Aleem Khan, whose of Westminster. After Love, says, “You need to have the England’s iFeatures scheme, supported by first short, Diana, was named Best UK He is also taking part in the BFI courage of your convictions, because BFI, the BBC and Creative Skillset, on the Short at the Iris Prize Festival. He was also NET.WORK’s Flare Mentorship scheme, people are looking for original stories.” back of her feature draft. recently nominated for a BAFTA for his which sees LGBT filmmakers paired with Lennox, who is already looking But with no short films under her latest short Three Brothers. industry mentors – in Khan’s case Ben ahead to next project which is most belt, Tunnard’s project didn’t make the cut “I was having meetings before but Roberts, director of the BFI’s Lottery likely a feature version of short Back of and Collins advised her to make a pilot for what a BAFTA nomination does is make Film Fund. Beyond, says a director has to remain her feature to attempt to grab the attention people take you more seriously when While Khan doesn’t believe it’s hungry and determined. of the industry. you’re in those meetings,” says Khan, been any harder for him than any other “Apparently around 80% of people The pilot, Emotional Fusebox, who is currently fine-tuning the script for filmmaker to make the break into features, don’t get to make their second film but was funded through the BFI NET.WORK his first feature, After Love, about a British he does see schemes like Flare and I want to be in the 20% who do.” and resulted in production funding from Muslim convert who discovers after her London Calling Plus as “crucial for helping Creative England for the feature version, husband’s death that he was leading a to increase visibility and representation for WORDS BY SARAH COOPER How To Live Yours, about a 29-year old double life. minority filmmakers.” woman who moves into her mother’s shed Developed through The Bureau’s “It’s about removing as many after the death of her twin brother. SOS writing scheme, the feature is barriers as possible for filmmakers,” says “The pilot was a massive thing in produced by Matthieu De Braconier, who Matimba Kabalika, talent co-ordinator BOOGALOO terms of bringing on the distributors and also produced Three Brothers through Film and content editor of the UK-wide talent AND GRAHAM other finance, because it was a tool that London’s London Calling Plus scheme, development programme BFI NET.WORK, DIRECTOR Michael Lennox which launched in 2013, backed by BFI PRODUCER Brian J. Falconer funding of £3m. BFI NET.WORK is aimed WRITER Ronan Blaney at helping new and emerging filmmakers CAST Martin McCann, Charlene reach their full potential through targeted McKenna, Riley Hamilton, Aaron Lynch development programmes, administered LOCATION Tower St, East Belfast through different film agencies across the FORMAT HD Digital UK. The NET.WORK’S website includes PRODUCTION COMPANY Out of Orbit a space called The Post Room, where PRODUCTION PARTNERS Northern filmmakers from anywhere across the Ireland Screen, BFI NET.WORK UK will be able to upload their SALES COMPANY Network Ireland shorts, which will then be seen by Television (IE) NET.WORK executives. Kabalika says the transition for shorts to features is the hardest jump to make successfully, which means targeted EMOTIONAL schemes are vital in providing filmmakers FUSEBOX with the “right tools to give them the best DIRECTOR Rachel Tunnard chance, from understanding audiences, to PRODUCER Michael Berliner working out who you’re up against, to how WRITER Rachel Tunnard to finance your film.” CAST Jodie Whittaker, Lorraine Tunnard calls for more schemes Ashbourne, Marcia Warren, targeted at helping emerging Rachael Deering, Edward Hogg female filmmakers. LOCATION Peak District, Derbyshire “There is clearly a problem because FORMAT ARRI Alexa there are so many brilliant women who PRODUCTION COMPANY Pico Pictures have brilliant stories to tell and yet there PRODUCTION PARTNERS Creative just aren’t that many women directors,” England, BFI NET.WORK she says, adding that she would like to SALES COMPANY Pico Pictures devise her own scheme, which would be “less X-Factor style and more about creating an environment where women feel safe enough to learn and gain confidence.” And while participating in a scheme THREE BROTHERS offers up a sound support network for DIRECTOR Aleem Khan upcoming directors, Lennox admits that PRODUCERS Matthieu de Braconier, it’s still daunting stepping out onto a Stephanie Paeplow feature set for the first time. WRITER Aleem Khan “The reality is, when you make your CAST Kulvinder Ghir, Zain first feature, you’re probably one of the Muhammad Zafar, Yousuf Hussain, most inexperienced people on the crew, Muhammad Mujahid-Ali Shahzad which is quite strange,” he says. Lennox LOCATION Medway Towns, Kent made sure he surrounded himself with a FORMAT Panavision Genesis hugely experienced and supportive crew, PRODUCTION COMPANIES The on the set of A Patch Of Fog, many of Bureau Film Company whom he’d previously worked with on PRODUCTION PARTNERS Film Jodie Whittaker in Emotional Fusebox, his shorts. London, BFI NET.WORK Peak District, Derbyshire (Photo: Toby Merritt) “As a first-time director there is a A SYRIAN DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER SEAN MCALLISTER ON HIS AWARD-WINNING A SYRIAN LOVE STORY AND THE LOVE CHALLENGES OF SHOOTING IN THE MIDDLE EAST STORY

ean McAllister is a master of BBC and at the time, Syria was on the unearthing fascinating stories cusp of an uprising. S in countries engulfed in civil “I went to Damascus and I was revolutions. driven to film Amer, and there were people sniffing at the commission, wanting His award-winning documentaries more newsy shots,” McAllister recalls. “I have taken him to a slew of countries in delivered the story on Yemen but they [the the Middle East during turbulent times, BBC] weren’t interested in another Arab including Iraq and Yemen, but it’s his latest story so they passed on a story on Syria.” turn behind the lens for A Syrian Love But McAllister was fascinated by Story that offered up one of the director’s Amer and his wife, Ragda. The couple first Bob in A Syrian Love Story gravest challenges to date. met first met when they were locked up in Filmed across five years, the a Syrian jail for daring to speak out against revolutionary documentary (which an oppressive regime. To McAllister, Amer “I used a £300 camera from snapped up the prestigious Grand Jury and Ragda were a modern day John Damascus that I bought in the Sony prize at Sheffield DocFest in June) is a Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands in Love “We were Centre. I would download footage onto potent portrait of a family as they flee Streams, and it is their relationship, as constantly my laptop and then move it into the trash Syria during the ongoing civil war while much as the wider political context, that and would leave the camera in the city. If chronicling their ability to cope with the inspired him to document their lives. debating how anyone did a comprehensive search they pressures of leaving their native and He embedded himself for years, could have found it. beloved land for their own safety. working undercover with a tourist visa aware the “I also left two different hard drives “I was really struggling to get this and filming the couple and their four sons with two different people. We were film commissioned,” recalls McAllister. firstly in the Syrian capital of Damascus, government was constantly debating how aware the “But I wanted to explore secular Syria.” Tartous and then Yarmouk, the Palestinian government was to our presence, but McAllister says that had the camp on the outskirts of Damascus. to our presence ” more than anything they want you to feel documentary been commissioned at any Subsequently he travelled to Lebanon and like you are being constantly watched, point, it would be an entirely different film. then France, where the family relocated. even if you aren’t.” “It would have been a film about During these trips, he began to map out filmmaking in the Middle East were made And whilst this film may not have that year and the Arab Spring,” he says. a bigger-picture film on Amer and Ragda rapidly apparent. “I felt like my life was been as dangerous as docs he made in “Ironically the film is better for audiences and their plight. in the hands of the gods,” he says. “I did Iraq (The Liberace of Baghdad) and Yemen because it wasn’t commissioned. For the But the journey wasn’t a think at some points, ‘Why did I do this? (The Reluctant Revolutionary) – “there first time in my life, I have a collection of straightforward one. In October 2011, What about my family?’ And I also were bullets flying and people dying in the material from over five years.” McAllister was arrested in a Damascus thought ‘Why Syria?’” streets for those” – A Syrian Love Story McAllister first met his subjects for café, blindfolded and imprisoned Being in a country ripped apart by has caused him to reflect on the danger of A Syrian Love Story, which he also co- for a week. civil war and hostile towards the West the work he does: “When you edit a film, produces with Elhum Shakerifar, in 2010. He lost much of the footage that he meant that McAllister had to think of it always looks a lot more dangerous than He was shooting the documentary The had captured and while being interrogated ways to protect the footage and get it it was at the time. I want to make more Reluctant Revolutionary in Yemen for the in prison the risks of documentary back to the UK. films in Britain now.”

WORDS BY JOSEPH WALSH

A SYRIAN LOVE STORY DIRECTOR Sean McAllister PRODUCERS Sean McAllister, Elhum Shakerifar LOCATION Syria, Lebanon, France FORMAT HD PRODUCTION COMPANY 10ft Films PRODUCTION PARTNERS BFI, BBC Storyville, Danish Broadcasting Corporation, Sveriges Television AB, Worldview

Sean McAllister and Bob in A Syrian Love Story

08 BFI.ORG.UK Tallulah Haddon on the set of Spaceship (photo: Phil Miller) SPACESHIP DIRECTOR Alex Taylor PRODUCERS Nicola Bowen, Olivier Kaempfer WRITER Alex Taylor CAST Antti Reini, Alexa Davies, Lara Peake, Lucian Charles Collier, Tallulah Haddon, Kristof Gerega, Jack Winthrop, Steve Elder, Harry Jarvis LOCATION Aldershot, Farnborough, Guildford FORMAT Alexa Amira PRODUCTION COMPANIES Belly Productions, Parkville Pictures PRODUCTION PARTNERS iFeatures, Creative England, BFI, BBC Films

ALEX TAYLOR TAKES AN ORGANIC APPROACH TO FILMMAKING FOR HIS FIRST FEATURE SPACESHIP

here aren’t many upcoming subsequently eight and finally, following filmmakers who win an intensive nine-month development T international accolades with process, three were awarded £350,000 to their first short film but Surrey-born make their film, Taylor was in one of the Alex Taylor did just that in 2010 with most hard-to-reach places on the planet: Kids Might Fly. the Galapagos Islands where he was assistant editor on David Attenborough’s The offbeat portrait of youth living in Galapagos 3D. It took him three flights East London blew global audiences away back to make the interview. winning a slew of awards including the “It wasn’t easy but it was clear for Special Jury Prize at SXSW. me as I always wanted to make films,” he “I have always been fascinated says. “I know a lot of people who have with teenagers’ strength to build their been trying to make features for a long own world and live in them without any time and I was lucky to get that break so regard for adult society,” says musician- I wasn’t going to mess it up.” Lara Peake in Spaceship (photo: Phil Miller) turned-director Taylor, who has an innate ability for encouraging strong and natural approach to his directing style. With a Taylor says that using this performances out of younger, I love to build background in music (he spent eight improvisational approach gives him the first-time actors. “ years as a saxophonist), he points to ability to tease out these beautiful and Building on this allure and skill, it a whole world in US indie directors such as Larry Clarke natural performances from his actors. seemed obvious that the premise for his (Kids) and Harmony Korine (Gummo) “I can give them pointers,” he says. debut feature is inspired by teens from his a film and allow as his influences. “But when they are going deep into some unconventional shorts. “I tried to take a more organic interesting territory, I don’t see the harm to Spaceship, which he writes and it to grow and approach to the film,” he says. “I wanted allow them to keep going. These people directs, is a teen drama about disaffected themes to play and develop like they do in are fascinating and get the film and the kids trying to understand the world in breathe by itself” music. I really believe that characters in a story so when I gave them the chance which they don’t fit. When 17-year-old film should be allowed the respect to live to improvise, they brought their own Lucidia disappears in an apparent alien and reveal to us their lives, their humanity texture to the film.” abduction, it forces her reclusive father to He teamed up with first-time feature and their thoughts without a narrative Kaempfer notes that Taylor is enter the strange fantasy world she and producer Nicola Bowen, who previously being imposed on top of them.” a director who works on instinct. her peers occupy. It stars Antti Reini (The worked in business development at On the first and second days “Alex doesn’t have a traditionally Man Without A Past), Alexa Davies (X+Y), Screen Yorkshire, and Parkville Pictures/ of shooting Spaceship, Taylor felt structured way of working as some other Lara Peake (Bypass), Lucian Charles Microwave senior production exec compelled to return to his improvisational directors and writers may have, and this Collier (The Only One Who Knows You’re Olivier Kaempfer, who has a raft of style, shooting some takes that lasted benefits for him,” says Kaempfer. “I see Afraid) and Tallulah Haddon. experience delivering micro-budget up to 25 minutes. Executives were, him very much as an auteur director and “I love to build a whole world in a features to audiences. understandably, he says, concerned but when you work with exciting talent like film and allow it to grow and breathe by “One of the things that was so fortunately they loved the rushes and this, you have to believe in them and itself and have its own life,” says Taylor. appealing about the film was that it allowed him to continue with what he take a leap of faith. And I’m glad we “So once I had the idea of a girl faking her sounded like nothing you’d ever seen or was doing. did because what at times on set may own alien abduction, it was just a case of heard of before,” recalls Bowen. “The “It was so empowering,” recalls have seemed like it was off-the-cuff, has populating the world around it and having initial pitch seemed to really make people Taylor. “I felt like they had given me a become integral to Alex’s overall vision, it react to the girl’s disappearance.” sit up and pay attention, though they vote of confidence, which enabled me to and makes it the special film that Spaceship was one of three usually (wrongly) assumed it was a sci-fi go further and show my voice. You have I feel it is.” selected out of more than 400 project, even though it isn’t at all.” to feel free in expressing yourself. If you Taylor adds: “I felt so encouraged by applications for the esteemed iFeatures Spaceship endured a lengthy want to make a good film, you have to feel the BFI and their team. They were really programme, Creative England’s low- development process, given this was free to express your own voice. There’s brave in choosing the projects they did budget filmmaking initiative supported by Taylor’s first script-writing experience and no point pretending to be someone else. and to have faith in these new projects the BFI, the BBC and Creative Skillset. it was, he says, “quite a journey to get the I can only really say things the way I see and new directors.” When Taylor discovered he had made script as tight as it could be.” them and I can only allow actors to do the initial stages of the programme Taylor, by his own admission, prefers things that I think are interesting and WORDS BY DIANA LODDERHOSE (which was whittled down to 16 and to take a much more improvisational then film them.”

BFI.ORG.UK 09 SCOTT GRAHAM TALKS FIRST FEATURE LESSONS AND THE CHALLENGES OF SHOOTING HIS FOLLOW-UP ON A REMOTE INNER HEBRIDES ISLAND

IONAhen Scottish filmmaker Scott It was this notion that sparked the Gallagher) into fugitives. The pair flee to Graham first travelled to Iona, narrative for his latest project: “Somehow the island where she was brought up I’m also a cinema- W the inner Hebrides island that translated into someone returning and which she was named after, “ that provides both the setting and title there who didn’t feel close to God. I was reconnecting Iona with the devout goer, and I know for his second feature film, it evoked interested in how raw that would make way of life she once turned her back on. an unforgettable feeling inside of him, you feel and the conflict that would It’s a story that began for Graham how rewarding it even as a young child. give you.” soon after he completed Shell and prior can be to feel like So began the journey of Iona, to its UK release, which was pushed “I visited the island when I was 10 Graham’s second feature that he both back by six months. you’re on a journey years old, with my mum and sister,” he writes and directs, following his acclaimed “I’m not a particularly patient person with a character says. “It definitely made an impression 2012 debut Shell. and I thought maybe the best thing to ” on me. I remember arriving by boat A place of spiritual contemplation do was to focus on something else for and sleeping on the beach and boiling and worship since the formation of Iona a while, so I began the script,” he says, with – but which Shell didn’t really have. potatoes in seawater.” Abbey in the sixth century, Iona serves as finishing some 30 pages of Iona when So I felt I was on new ground with Iona Graham recalls being told that the a place of escape in the film, which begins Shell hit theatres. because it had momentum from the start.” island, which is not even three and a half on mainland Scotland before a sudden Like Shell, the story of a teenage He adds: “As well as being a square miles, was “somewhere where act of violence turns Iona, played by Ruth girl living with her taciturn father at a filmmaker, I’m also a cinema-goer, and people went to feel close to God.” Negga, and her teenage son Bull (Ben remote Highlands petrol station, Iona also I know how rewarding it can be to feel foregrounds a parent-child relationship, like you’re on a journey with a character. exploring the point in adolescence when a That’s something I couldn’t have with child begins to face up to decisions Shell because the point was that and desires of his or her own. everyone else was on a journey but “I’m interested in how the past they [the characters] weren’t.” informs the present, particularly the Iona sees Graham reteam with parent’s past and how that defines them established producer Margaret Matheson, as adults,” says Graham. who says she was conscious that But unlike his first feature, Iona Graham’s second film had to be a more thrusts audiences into the story with expansive production than his debut. a dramatic opening, giving the film a “Scott’s working in a clear artistic different current from the offset. space, which is not mainstream genre And its unusual blend of genre cinema,” she says. “It’s slightly more elements set against the backdrop of a continental-European in feel. So the religious community are inspired, says challenge was to allow him to adhere Graham, by the 1985 Peter Weir to his artistic instincts, yet to produce thriller Witness. something that might appeal to and reach “For a little while there I thought I a broader audience than Shell.” was writing a thriller,” he says. “Iona starts As with most second-time feature Ruth Negga in Iona with an ‘exciting incident’, which is what filmmakers, there were, of course, lessons you’re ‘supposed’ to start your script that Graham learned from his directorial

10 BFI.ORG.UK IONA DIRECTOR Scott Graham PRODUCER Margaret Matheson CO-PRODUCER Gunter Hanfgarn WRITER Scott Graham CAST Ruth Negga, Ben Gallagher, Douglas Henshall, Tom Brooke, Michelle Duncan, Sorcha Groundsell LOCATION Glasgow, Oban, Mull, Iona FORMAT Digital PRODUCTION COMPANIES Bard Entertainments, Boudica Silver, Hanfgarn & Ufer PRODUCTION PARTNERS BFI, Creative Scotland, ZDF, Arte UK DISTRIBUTOR Verve Pictures

Scott Graham and Ben Gallagher on the set of Iona

experiences of religion. It’s not something her lighting,” says Graham. “It reminds me Sorcha Groundsell in Iona that we talk about very much. I found an of life as I remember it as a teenager.” openness to the fact that I was trying In this secluded setting, Negga to be open.” is joined by Douglas Henshall playing Graham and his crew decamped to the father of her friend who is played by Iona for two weeks in September 2014 Michelle Duncan, and Sorcha Groundsell where they set up base in a school hall who plays Duncan’s daughter. and got around on foot or by bike. Speaking of Ethiopian-born Negga, “We were spread across two hotels who plays Iona and who has been seen and many B&Bs and rented houses, which recently in Jimi: All Is by My Side, the put us in direct touch with the community,” director says: “There’s a toughness recalls Matheson. “You don’t want to there, and a childlike quality too, which is be isolated from the community you’re important for Iona because so much of depicting. We borrowed bikes to speed what happens when she goes back to the around the island because we weren’t able island is about a regression to when she to take many vehicles across.” was 15 or 16.” There was the issue of daily tourists Graham found Iona’s son, after a descending upon the island, which casting call out. “Ben is studying acting created challenges for a crew filming on at drama college in Glasgow, so he does debut that he was able apply when because they were there in the script for such a small island with only two roads. want to be an actor, but you’re still working approaching his next project. a reason and we needed them.” Fortunately, the weather was kind to with someone who is very raw,” he says. “I went through a period of With Iona, Graham made a note to them, bringing a dazzling glow to the “I liked him straight away. He had an mourning after I’d made Shell, as the himself to go on set as the writer and cinematography by Yoliswa von Dallwitz, innocence and sincerity that was there writer of it,” recalls Graham. “Directing to trust his script more. a returning collaborator from Shell. in the character. I’ll generally try to cast my own script, I should have been more Given his sparseness in screenplays, “There’s something nostalgic about actors who are already as close to the loyal to it and protective of it. But the time Graham remarks it was a concern as to character as possible.” pressures got to me a bit and I let certain how he and Matheson would persuade And while Graham’s second things slip through my fingers. I’m learning financiers to back the film. directorial effort has resulted in a that that always happens and you have “I wasn’t sure how they were going bracing spiritual drama that marks a step to adapt. You can’t go into each day or to receive the script, it’s a tricky subject For a little “ up in both ambition and accomplishment each scene rigid.” matter – issues around faith. I felt there from his debut, he is loathe to rest on With a propensity for penning lean were a lot of dramas around the harm while there, his laurels just yet: “You rely on the scripts, void of over-description, he religion has done, or that take a critical audience to help you complete the film. admits that he separated his director view of faith. I thought It’s not complete until it’s seen by role perhaps too far from his writer role “I wanted to write about faith people in a room together. It’s a in his first film. in a way that wasn’t overtly negative, I was writing communal experience.” “When I was cutting Shell, and it was quite surreal to be having I realised we didn’t have certain things,” conversations with people about God, a thriller” WORDS BY SAMUEL WIGLEY he says. “I was annoyed at myself and them opening up about their own SUFFRAGETTE DIRECTOR Sarah Gavron PRODUCERS Faye Ward, Alison Owen WRITER Abi Morgan CAST Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Meryl Streep, Brendan Gleeson, Anne-Marie Duff, Ben Whishaw, Romola Garai, Samuel West SHOOT DURATION 45 days LOCATION London, Windsor, Chatham, Harpenden FORMAT 16mm & Alexa PRODUCTION COMPANIES Ruby Films, Redgill Productions PRODUCTION PARTNERS Pathé, Film4, BFI, Canal+, Cine-Cinema SALES COMPANY Pathé International UK DISTRIBUTOR Pathé

SARAH GAVRON’S HUGELY AMBITIOUS SECOND FEATURE PUTS AN INTIMATE FOCUS ON THE EPIC STRUGGLES OF THE SUFFRAGETTES

ast a glance at Sarah Gavron’s BFI, Suffragette reunites Gavron with “In a world where women are still credits and one thing becomes producers Faye Ward and Alison Owen regularly abused and denied the same C instantly clear: she relishes and writer Abi Morgan (the four women equal rights as men, the message of a challenge. worked on Brick Lane together in 2007). this film still applies.” “It was one of those stories that when we The team decided early on not do Unafraid to tackle sensitive subject researched it, we uncovered all of these take the biopic route which, says Gavron, matter ranging from the BAFTA-winning other elements of this story and it then felt like a safer way to go, and built the BBC drama This Little Life, which centres became ever-more vital and relevant to story around Maud, who is drawn from on a couple dealing with the premature make this film,” says Gavron. “It felt like it many sources and unpublished accounts birth of their son, to an adaptation of was in the zeitgeist and it was in the time of women at the time. Monica Ali’s best-selling book Brick Lane, to make the film.” “Historical biopics are always focused on a Bangladeshi woman’s Police archives unveiled accounts difficult,” notes Morgan, who has written struggle in a loveless marriage in a place of brutality ranging from hunger strikes to screenplays on subjects such as Margaret far from home, the British director is force-feeding and it became, she says, Thatcher (The Iron Lady) and Charles nothing if not intrepid. near impossible to ignore the parallels Dickens (The Invisible Woman). “But this But it’s Gavron’s latest turn between the lengths these women went to was liberating to take on a movement behind the lens that reveals her biggest and the plight that faces women’s rights that drew on the testimonials of real challenge and perhaps most important and politics in parts of the world, such as women of the time.” accomplishment to date. Suffragette, the Middle East, today. “There were lots of ordinary starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham “The more we researched, the more women who took part in this movement,” Carter, Anne-Marie Duff and Meryl Streep, we felt compelled to tell the story,” says Gavron adds. “By taking this route, we is a careful portrayal of the foot soldiers Ward, who notes it was a year and a half would be able to bring together women of the early feminist movement in London before pen was put to paper. “The more of all classes and it felt like the exciting 1912 and how they embarked on a we read, the more we realised we needed way to go.” campaign of militancy in order to fight to consume it all before we could get into Owen agrees: “We wanted the against gender inequality. the angle of the film.” film to feel visceral and resonant. These The subject matter alone is one that Suffragette, it feels, is more than just women were the guerillas of their time. begs to be handled with care but add this a film. It is not only a cinematic portrayal They are not polite, upper-class ‘sister to enormous set pieces, riot scenes with of women’s rights and politics in the early Suffragettes.’ They are warriors.” 300 extras, a load of visual effects, stunts, 1900s but is cleverly associated with However, distilling this story of the accidents, horses, scenes in the Houses present day issues. The film is set to foot soldiers of the movement through of Parliament all for a budget of £10 open the BFI London Film Festival in a huge swathe of material was not million, and the term “ambitious” takes on October in advance of its UK release without its challenges. “We were always a whole new meaning. at a time when the world is seeing a trying to serve the historical through the “The material needed scale and resurgence of feminism and appetite fictional and do justice to the heads of the scope,” says Gavron. “We had to step up for women’s stories. movement namely [Emmeline] Pankhurst to that and create a film on a big canvas “Despite the significant change [leader of the Suffragette movement] and give it a big sweep to do justice and advancement of women in recent whilst witnessing the drama through the to this story. Not only was this second years, the demands of social economic, eyes of ordinary, if militant, suffragettes,” feature stress for me, but it’s religious and cultural equality of the says Morgan. SUFFRAGETTE a strong message. We were ready Suffragette movement are as important Conscious of how the Suffragettes for the challenge.” and as relevant as they have ever been to had been portrayed throughout history – 12 BFI.ORG.UK Backed by Pathé, Film4 and the orchestrate global change,” says Morgan. “stuffy, posh, slightly acerbic,” says Ward Sarah Gavron on set with Steadicam operator Peter Robertson

– breaking these portrayals as much as scouting so that it when it came to possible became a guiding principle for shooting, they could maximise their time. the film. Gavron was also keen to create They even set up a website with the crew a raw world that immersed the audience: so everyone could communicate and “We didn’t want to prettify it,” she says. connect about the research. Ward says that while the Filmed mostly around London, development process was a long one, save for one scene in Windsor, Gavron the team could not have rushed the story. was able make the most of the shoot “Had we been quicker, would this film by always keeping two cameras rolling, have been made three or five years ago? sometimes even three or four. I don’t think so,” she says. “So, in that “It had a visceral feel to it,” Gavron sense, I do think there is a certain says. “I think we allowed it to be quite element of fate in making the film when loose, which gave an energy that kept we made it. It feels like the right time for everyone on their toes and then we didn’t this story to be told.” have those long, dead periods you often Casting the project was, say the get in film when the energy drops, which women, “like casting a love story.” was great because we had to move fast.” They had their eye on Mulligan Crucially, Suffragette is the first film for the role of Maud from very early on. that the Houses of Parliament has ever Morgan had worked with her on Steve opened its doors to. McQueen’s Shame, and they talked “I remember thinking it was quite about her extensively for six months thrilling,” recalls Gavron. “There was this during writing before offering her the part. wonderful irony of this place that had Mulligan read the script and then two barred women and there we were, this days later committed to the project. “She predominately female cast and crew, was so on board and so believed in it from staging a riot that was anti-government day one,” says Gavron. there. It was so empowering.” Keen to get the right alchemy, Suffragette is one of many BFI Bonham Carter (who, ironically, is the films shepherded by the late production great granddaughter of former Prime executive Chris Collins and Ward, who Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, a key first worked with him on Brick Lane, points target for the Suffragettes at the time) to his generosity and faith as a key driver embraced the dynamic role of Edith. for films they worked on together. “It was quite intriguing because “He and Alison [Owen] were so we knew this fact when we sent her the generous with allowing newcomers to script,” says Ward. “But we weren’t sure push forward and ever since then, both The material if she would want to get involved due to Chris and Alison have really nurtured our “ the fact that her family were obviously careers and been so supportive of us.” present in this historical moment.” But Gavron notes that Collins, even needed scale Bonham Carter embraced the opportunity though he was ill, had a lot of input in and gave the team insight into the Suffragette, particularly in the edit. “He and scope and Asquith family. saw a number of cuts and made some Streep’s iconic status made her key comments that fed into the final cut,” we had to step the perfect fit for the very brief but key she says. “He was also able to come role of Pankhurst. to Parliament and I think he was really up to that “It was important to have an icon proud of us.” ” play an icon,” says Ward. “Because Owen says that although the film she’s only in one scene, you immediately is set in the early 1900s, its message will understand how powerful and important undoubtedly still resonate with audiences this woman is.” today. “I’m terrified when young women, Carey Mulligan on the set of Suffragette, And while the film’s core reflects even my own daughters, don’t grasp House of Commons, Westminster, London the plight of women at the time, the how fragile our advantages are, and how team was conscious to handle the male recently attained,” she says. “When we characters with care. have shown the film to young audiences, “It was important for us not to that is gratifyingly their biggest reaction – Back row (L-R): Sarah Gavron (director), Helen Pankhurst (great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst), portray men as bad people,” says Ward. they cannot believe how different things Laura Pankhurst (great-great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst), Alison Owen (producer); Front row “The challenge was to convey this story were for women only a few generations (L-R): Abi Morgan (screenwriter), Anne-Marie Duff (actor), Meryl Streep (actor), Carey Mulligan (actor), and have empathy for men but still very ago. Showing how hard won our rights Helena Bonham Carter (actor), Faye Ward (producer) much make it a story about women.” have been will hopefully be a wake up call Ben Whishaw, who plays Maud’s to complacency.” husband who objects to her actions due Gavron couldn’t agree more: “These to the effects it has on their family, brings women lost their families and jobs to leave a subtlety and empathy to his role a legacy that we are all now benefiting while Brendan Gleeson, who plays a from generations later. We wouldn’t be plain-clothes policeman spearheading doing these amazing jobs if it wasn’t for a pioneering operation of going these amazing women.” undercover and surveying women using Ward concludes: “Suffragette is cameras, also plays a complex, three- about women and the political revolution dimensional character. of the time. But it is also about the “Men weren’t straightforward and voiceless gaining a voice. All human they weren’t villains,” Gavron notes. beings deserve to have a place in “They were complex characters with society and feel that they are worth their own agendas and they were something. Their voices should be heard products of their time.” and this is, unfortunately, very much a The shoot was a determined one. contemporary issue.” Ward pushed the team to do huge amounts of early prep and location WORDS BY DIANA LODDERHOSE

Sarah Gavron on the set of Suffragette, House of Commons, Westminster, London Tom Hiddleston on the HIGH-RISE set of High-Rise, Belfast DIRECTOR Ben Wheatley PRODUCER Jeremy Thomas WRITER Amy Jump, from the novel by JG Ballard CAST Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss SHOOT DURATION Seven weeks LOCATION Belfast FORMAT Digital PRODUCTION COMPANY Recorded Picture Company PRODUCTION PARTNERS BFI and Film4 in association with Northern Ireland Screen, Ingenious Media, Scope Invest Producteurs and S Films SALES COMPANY HanWay Films UK DISTRIBUTOR StudioCanal

HIGH-RISE BEN WHEATLEY AND WRITING PARTNER AMY JUMP FINALLY CRACK A BIG SCREEN ADAPTATION OF J G BALLARD’S CLASSIC NOVEL

pening with the line, “Later, as delivers a startling and audacious looking at licensing books to film and were the same age as the children in the he sat on his balcony eating take on fragmentation, tribalism and sat on the sofa and looked at my shelf of tower. In many ways the children in the O the dog…”, J.G. Ballard’s class injustice. books and saw High-Rise and thought, tower were our parents and we have seen justly celebrated 1975 novel was never Adapted by Amy Jump and with well why has nobody done it? I didn’t how their lives have turned out. The film is going to be the easiest work to adapt a cast including Tom Hiddleston (as know the back story of Roeg and Jeremy a look at the book, from the perspective for the screen. The tale of a modern Dr Robert Laing), Jeremy Irons as the Thomas and so contacted my agent of the people that survived it. We are in a tower block with amenities enough god-like architect Anthony Royal, Sienna and asked who had it and was told that perpetual 70s/80/90s. Boom followed by to allow it to exist in relative isolation, Miller as Charlotte Melville, Luke Evans Jeremy Thomas did. Within three days bust, then boom followed by bust again. the block is structured according to as Richard Wilder, a producer of television I was at The Recorded Picture Company JW: I was impressed by the balance the bank balances of its inhabitants. documentaries with a nose for uncovering and talking to Jeremy. Luckily, Jeremy between computer generated effects and The cocktail party loving wealthy frolic uncomfortable truths and Elisabeth had recently seen Sightseers and so actual locations. It gives the film, and the in the penthouse suites above; the Moss as Helen Wilder, Wheatley’s film it all came together quite well. high-rise especially, a much needed sense less privileged look enviously up at captures the source material’s alarming JW: The timing of the film is of authenticity. Were you keen that this the endless hedonism from the floors psychological insights whilst also incredibly prescient. It really feels like sense of equilibrium be achieved? below. It’s a pressure cauldron situation emphasising the profoundly disturbing you are taking the pulse of the nation. As a spectator, it is essential I feel that and all too soon, as witnessed by connections between technology and the Though the book was written in 1975 one can believe in the world and the young doctor Robert Laing, society human condition. Beautifully evoking the did you feel it was important that the society you depict. slips into a violent reverse and an Seventies, the minimalist electronic score film should have real social and political BW: It was really important that extreme survival of the fittest fuses Clint Mansell with Portishead’s resonance in an era in which the divide the building felt real. It was a little bit mentality takes hold. astonishing take on Abba’s SOS. between the rich and the poor is bigger than the flats that were built but Jason Wood: High-Rise has long becoming increasingly clear? not massively so. The flats in the film are Arguably the ultimate Dystopian been destined for the screen with various BW: I think that the issue that not actually that big, except of course tale from an author who regularly peered directors, including Nicolas Roeg at one people had with the book in terms of for Royal’s. We looked at a lot of brutalist behind the façade of respectable social point almost bringing it to the screen. adapting it was that they thought it was buildings but we were also looking at behaviour, High-Rise was once a project What was your own attraction to the futuristic and that it was projecting into an alternative 1970s. We didn’t want a developed by producer Jeremy Thomas novel and what were the main challenges the future. But the future Ballard was greatest hits of the 1970s with circular with Nicolas Roeg scheduled to direct. It you knew you would face in bringing it projecting was forward of ’75 and we have televisions and kipper ties. We wanted never came to fruition, but Thomas kept to the screen? lived into that future. We were making a to be a time out of time. the flame alive through numerous other Ben Wheatley: It had been a book futuristic film about a projected past and JW: Your work has always had an incarnations and now British director I had read as a teenager and loved it and because we have seen what happened, interest in sects and tribalism and the idea Ben Wheatley, whose previous work there were rites of passage of reading and Ballard also saw it coming down the of a society teetering on the brink of a has explored themes of primal urges, that included Naked Lunch and other pipe, we decided to have the end quote return to primitive behaviour. secret sects and the sense of civilisation books by Burroughs and Ballard. We got from Thatcher about State capitalism. BW: It’s essentially a contradiction teetering precariously on collapse, to the stage a year or so when we started Amy Jump and I were born in 1972 so we of our time. We all drive cars but don’t

16 BFI.ORG.UK Jeremy Thomas, Ben Wheatley and Jeremy Irons on the set of High-Rise PRODUCER JEREMY THOMAS AND HIS LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP WITH HIGH-RISE

Jason Wood: You are no stranger the spirit of the moment. People to tackling ‘difficult’ books. What being allowed to thrive, whilst others was your attraction to High-Rise are being just cut off and cast adrift. and what particular challenges It’s capitalism at any cost, including did adapting it present given the the cost of any reasonable social content of the book? existence. We have seen it during Jeremy Thomas: I’ve done so the recent riots in London and these many of them. The ‘difficult’ books. rampages of destruction. High-Rise Crash with David Cronenberg of really isn’t so far from what life is course being one of them. I love anyway. It’s chilling. Ballard’s novels and his films are JW: The film achieves the ripe for adaptation but they are really difficult task of capturing undeniably very difficult to adapt. both the source material’s darkness With Crash we were fortunate that and its humour. Ballard was alive at the time and JT: There are certainly really care where the petrol comes from. and cinematographer Laurie Rose. Do he completely understood that you humorous moments. It is, after all, Countries that produce oil are bombed you enjoy the fact that each of your films are adapting it. You can’t make the a satire and offers quite a darkly but we are removed in our empathy retains an aesthetic and thematic dialogue novel. You have to make the spirit of comic commentary. because we want to continue to be able with your previous works? the novel and this involved adding JW: Tom Hiddleston captures to drive our cars around. That was one BW: It’s the team that we’ve had and subtracting things from it. We Robert Laing well. In a world of of the most heart-breaking things about from the beginning. Rob Entwistle in the did that with Crash and we did it repellent people he’s the least New Labour. There were more wars under sound department and script supervisor again with High-Rise. Both took a dislikeable. He has the glimmer Blair than there were under Thatcher. Anita Christy are really important. I like long time, High-Rise took a bit longer of a conscience. As people that live in a country with an that my films feel like supercharged and went through various guises. I JT: It was important with army that is out in active service we are versions of Down Terrace. initially didn’t think I would be able to Laing to suggest that there was part of that. That’s the ugliness of our JW: The minimalist score is terrific. find all the resources in the UK and something better deep inside him, society and we can’t pretend that we are Can you just say something about then Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump a conscience and a consciousness. not responsible. This is certainly what Kill working with Clint Mansell and having became involved and it went back to On the opposite spectrum Wilder List is about. They bring the war home. Portishead cover Abba? the roots of the book. has completely lost it. I think People’s memories tend to be short. BW: I was watching Portishead JW: Ben has said that his your comment is a credit also to When we look back at the tribes that have at Glastonbury and then I realised that approach was to not worry about Hiddleston’s performance. I worked lived in England they have done all sorts Geoff Barrow was following me on the reception of the film and to get with Tom with Jim Jarmusch on of terrible things. And will continue to. Twitter and that he was a fan of A Field on with the film he wanted to make. Only Lovers Left Alive and he’s very JW: The combination of observation in England. I followed him back and we It’s a brave but sensible choice. As a committed. He stayed with us for a and humour is an overlooked facet of eventually met. And I just said, ‘Are you producer who was both worked with very long time whilst we were putting Ballard’s work I feel. Your work is perhaps interested in doing this?’ I had to write the likes of Roeg, Bertolucci and the film together. He very much more noted for its black humour. a permission letter to Benny Andersson Cronenberg how did you come to wanted to work with Ben. BW: Ballard’s work is very funny - thankfully he said’ Yes’. The process the work of Ben Wheatley? You have JW: Ben works with a lot I think but it is very hard to translate. of working with Portishead is one of the always been a very active supporter of his regular crew but you have Because the humour is in the turn of treats of filmmaking, as is working with of new and emerging talent. also introduced him to a lot of phrase. The humour in Ballard’s High-Rise Clint Mansell. I had heard that Clint was JT: I totally inhabit cinema in new people. revolves around how he describes people keen to work on High-Rise and so I quite terms of seeing movies and I had JT: I think a lot of people did and what they do and it’s difficult to do simply contacted him. The process was seen Sightseers. Alainée Kent who some incredible work on this film. that as a straight translation. I honestly a little different on this film because the works with me had seen his other Mark Tildesley’s production design think that Amy Jump has done a process was less montage driven and films, starting with Down Terrace, is really something. Odile Dicks- fantastic job with it. more propelled by an underscore. This and I got to know very well Ben’s Mireaux did fantastic work with the JW: It’s incredibly visceral. I am was much more of a suite of sounds. It work. The situation was the similar to costumes and we also had Wakana thinking especially of Laing dissecting presented a different challenge. the one when I received the script for Yoshihara’s make-up. They and the severed head. JW: This is, to be fair, quite a high- Sexy Beast. I went out and immersed Ben’s regular crew all made a terrific BW: It’s a statement of intent. It’s a risk film given the admiration for Ballard myself in Jonathan Glazer’s work. I, contribution to the film. film that is very much about the stripping and for this book particularly. Are you of course, keep up to speed with the JW: The film has a realistic away of social masks and showing what wary or excited concerning its reception? British film industry and like to know sensibility. is literally beneath the surface. For me BW: To be honest I haven’t thought what’s bubbling. Ben, of course, by JT: It’s not too CGI heavy. In that was a really interesting image, about it. It’s about making the best film this time already had become a very terms of production it’s a relatively JW: It’s a risky role for Tom you can make and hoping that people like established director with following modest film. We were able to use Hiddleston as young doctor with a faint it. You really can’t spend time worrying and then I received call from my son the CGI sparingly but everything whiff of conscience. He’s the most about it. If you worried about it, you make Jack who is an agent at Independent was so meticulously thought out in sympathetic character in the film but that it differently and then end up chasing a telling me that Ben had researched the design and production process. really isn’t saying very much. mystical audience that exists only in your the fact that I had the rights to I also think that the building with its BW: I’ve watched Hiddleston in the head. I make films that I want to see and High-Rise. The idea of working with idea of luxury is pretty accurate in films of Joanna Hogg and the Marvel films hope that I am in tune enough with an Ben on the project immediately terms of what is being done in terms pictures he has made and enjoyed him in audience that other people are going to became a very attractive idea. It felt of property development. This is both. He’s a very smart guy and knows want to see it as well. I don’t want my like when Cronenberg told me that actually a side of the film that I am how to play complexity. As an actor he’s choices compromised. We wrestled with he wanted to make Naked Lunch. really pleased with. also incredibly committed. the book, which was difficult to adapt, The two elements just clicked and JW: There is a huge sense of JW: He destroys Jeremy Irons on and tried to be as true to the book as we went together. I felt immediately that anticipation for the film. the squash court. could. The translation of a book to a film this could be something. Amy Jump JT: To be honest it exists on BW: I have to say, Irons was pretty can’t please everyone. It just can’t. The wrote a very good script and once every film. You enter a maelstrom of tough too… ethos of Down Terrace was that a group the script went through the process opinion. It was obviously particular JW: You work with a number of of people got together to make a film and that all scripts go through we arrived true of Crash and I think High-Rise your regular cast (Reece Shearsmith, didn’t worry about asking permission. This at High-Rise. will certainly have a similar interest Julia Deakin, Peter Ferdinando) but also comes from a very similar attitude. JW: The book was published point. When you make films that are work for the first time with actors such as in 1975 but the film feels absolutely unusual you have to launch them in Keeley Hawes… right for now. It has incredible a very specific way. The expectation BW: I wanted to work with James JASON WOOD IS THE RECENTLY APPOINTED resonance. for this film is two-fold: Ben and Purefoy for years. Keeley Hawes was ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF FILM AT HOME, JT: Given the spirit of the Ballard. And of course, we have an terrific. There isn’t a weak cast member. It MANCHESTER. A VISITING PROFESSOR OF FILM AT Government today it couldn’t have incredible cast. sounds gushy bit it was genuinely a treat MANCHESTER SCHOOL OF ART, WOOD IS ALSO been timed better. It really captures to go on set. THE AUTHOR OF 10 PUBLISHED WORKS ON CINEMA. JW: There is also a continuation in WWW.HOMEMCR.ORG terms of your work with writer Amy Jump

Jeremy Thomas and Ben Wheatley on the set of High-Rise, Belfast Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz on the set of The THE LOBSTER Lobster, Dromore Woods, Coillte Teoranta, Ireland DIRECTOR Yorgos Lanthimos PRODUCERS Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday, Ceci Dempsey, Yorgos Lanthimos WRITERS Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou CAST Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Jessica Barden, Olivia Colman, Ashley Jensen, Ariane Labed, Angeliki Papoulia, John C. Reilly, Léa Seydoux, Michael Smiley, Ben Whishaw LOCATIONS Parknasilla Hotel and Resort, Sneem, County Kerry, Dromore Woods, Coillte Teoranta FORMAT HD PRODUCTION COMPANIES Element Pictures, Scarlet Films, Faliro House Productions SA, Haut et Court, Lemming Film, Limp, Lisp Films Limited PRODUCTION PARTNERS Film4, Bord Scannán na hÉireann/Irish Film Board, Eurimages, BFI, Netherlands Film Fund, Greek Film Centre, CANAL+, CINE+ and Aide aux Cinémas du Monde, Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères et du Développement International, Institut Français, MEDIA Programme of the European Union, Cofiloisirs SALES COMPANY Protagonist Pictures UK/IRELAND DISTRIBUTOR Picturehouse Entertainment, Element Pictures Distribution

GREEK DIRECTOR YORGOS LANTHIMOS TALKS ABOUT DIRECTING HIS FIRST ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FEATURE AND ASKING THE AUDIENCES TO STEP OUTSIDE THE BOX LOBSTER

20 BFI.ORG.UK t’s been four years since acclaimed Greek director Yorgos Léa Seydoux in The Lobster I Lanthimos moved to London.

Fresh off of the back of the critical success of Alps, which picked up the Osella for Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival, the filmmaker was keen to break from his native language and start making films in English. “It was a very deliberate move,” says the director, whose macabre films such as Dogtooth (winner of Un Certain Regard in Cannes 2009), Alps and Kinetta have established a cult following across the globe. “I was intent on my next film being in the English language.” And while for some directors the step up from local-language independent to the big leagues is sometimes too big of a hurdle to jump, Lanthimos, a master of Greek surrealism, handles the transition almost seamlessly with his English- language debut The Lobster. Boasting a stellar cast including Colin Farrell, Rachel successful.” she says. They took the lucky as they were all wonderful. They all Weisz and John C. Reilly, the dystopian project to Rotterdam to present it to the got the film and were very supportive love story set in the near future examines “I always expect market in a “very low-key” way, before and helpful.” a world where single people are obliged any cast were attached. The Lobster was shot in County to find a partner in 45 days or they are people to be torn “We didn’t want to put too much Kerry in southwest Ireland over 35 days transformed into animals and released when they see pressure on the project as a film that was and while the project scales up from into the woods. driven by cast, we wanted to drive it very anything Lanthimos had done before The film marks the third one of my films much as a Yorgos Lanthimos project. And and represents his first English-language collaboration between Lanthimos and ” we wanted to protect him as a filmmaker film there was, says Magiday, no doubt Greek screenwriter Efthimis Filippou first and foremost,” says Magiday. that he would deliver what he intended (Dogtooth, Alps) and has already been very interesting look at how we are as The Lobster became an Irish-UK- with the film. lauded on the international festival circuit: people,” says Magiday. “Being single, Greek-French-Dutch co-production; “Yorgos works incredibly hard and It debuted in competition at the Cannes being alone or being involved physical production was done in Ireland; there was no doubt that he would make Film Festival earlier this year, where it with someone and the fears and editing in the UK; picture and sound the film particular to his own voice” she picked up the Jury Prize and left the constraints society puts on that. post in Holland; and VFX in France. says. “There has never been a question Croisette with a plethora of top It was a truly original love story.” “We worked hard with our co-producers about his transition to English for us. His notch reviews. Element were able to offer up on this co-production structure,” says dialogue is so particular and he has a very “It’s about exposing aspects of funding from their MEDIA slate financing Magiday, “to enable Yorgos the freedom specific ear for how he hears language,” human life and situations and thoughts for the duo to write a script. “We wanted to work creatively.” adding that Filippou was on set for most that you have,” explains Lanthimos of to support Yorgos and Efthimis to write Lanthimos admits that the film may of the shoot. “They would talk constantly The Lobster. “Hopefully people watching the screenplay in their own unique way.” not be the most straight-forward and about how things sounded and how the will start thinking themselves about Magiday says. “The MEDIA funding commercial film but despite this, casting dialogue worked.” those things and come up with their own helped us as producers to do that right the film, he says, was relatively easy. He Magiday says that they totally answers. Whatever we have observed away rather than going through a decided very early on that he wanted to believed in the world Lanthimos was in our behaviour and the way we have more lengthy process to engage work with Farrell and Weisz. “I was very creating. “The real challenge for Yorgos constructed this world, we want to make development funding.” lucky that many of these actors were was filming in a different location with people wonder whether all of those She says it was Lanthimos’ voice aware of my work and read the script and crew he didn’t know and working on things are true.” and unique way of looking at the world were genuinely interested in it,” he says. a film of a different scale.” Producers Lee Magiday and Ed that was the key driver for Element and “Literally I got all of the actors I wanted to “My previous films were so small,” Guiney of Dublin and London-based Scarlet’s interest in his vision. “We were work with for this film. The language didn’t says Lanthimos, noting that in the past Element Pictures and London-based interested in him and the fact that he was matter at this point as the film takes part he had had just a few friends on board a Scarlet Films’ Ceci Dempsey were driven by the human condition and the in this world, this contemporary world project making it for the love of film with working with Lanthimos on another way in which he looks at the world, we had created.” little money and a lot of flexibility. “It was project when he and Filippou presented keen to provoke reactions rather than The cast is certainly reflective of very different working in an environment them with the idea for The Lobster. offer up answers.” a contemporary world, with a diverse where there are rules and structures,” he “We wanted to do something about Financing the project, however, range of actors from the UK (Weisz, admits. “And sometimes it’s hard to go a relationship and couples and the way became a challenge, recalls Lanthimos. Olivia Colman, Ashley Jensen and Ben around them but in the end, it worked.” people view them,” says Lanthimos, “For some reason I guess people wanted Whishaw), Ireland (Farrell), France (Léa And while the film stepped up noting that the concept evolved over me to prove myself in English-language Sedoux and Ariane Labed), the US in terms of scale and ambition, the a long process of observations and films,” he suggests. (Reilly) and Greece (Angeliki Papoulia) all international film circuit crystallised his discussions between himself and Magiday says they were keen to composing Lanthimos’ world. effort when Cannes selected the film to Filippou. “It wasn’t one particular create a process where the budget was in “Casting became the simplest part feature in the main Competition in May. thing that inspired us.” a range whereby he could keep creative of the equation,” says Lanthimos. “Most While Lanthimos is no stranger to the The duo wrote a treatment and control. “We wanted to drive the financing of them I didn’t know and we didn’t have festival (Dogtooth won Un Certain Regard offered it to Element and Scarlet and they out of the European marketplace, where the time or money to bring everyone in for in 2009), The Lobster represented the first immediately came on board. “It was a his previous films had been so critically rehearsals beforehand but I was extremely time one of his films was selected for this prestigious section of the festival. When the illustrious Cannes jury, Ariane Labed in The Lobster which this year featured the likes of the Coen Brothers, Jake Gyllenhaal and Guillermo del Toro, awarded The Lobster with the Jury prize, Lanthimos’ position as an international director was cemented. “I always expect people to be torn when they see one of my films and divided in some way,” says Lanthimos. “And I’m sure that there are people who really like what we do and others who don’t. But it was great to meet people who appreciate what we are doing on some levels and get recognised for it.” He adds: “I wouldn’t be making films if I just wanted to express some specific ideas, then I would be writing essays or something. I just think it’s interesting to start a dialogue.”

WORDS BY DIANA LODDERHOSE ETHEL & ERNEST DIRECTOR Roger Mainwood PRODUCERS Camilla Deakin, Ruth Fielding, Stephan Roelants WRITER Raymond Briggs VOICE CAST Brenda Blethyn, Jim Broadbent, Luke Treadaway, Virginia McKenna, June Brown, Pam Ferris, Simon Day, Roger Allam, Harry Collet FORMAT Animation PRODUCTION COMPANIES Lupus Films, Ethel & Ernest Productions, Melusine Productions, Cloth Cat Animation PRODUCTION PARTNERS BFI, BBC, Universal Pictures, the Luxembourg Film Fund and Ffilm Cymru Wales SALES COMPANY Little Film Company UK DISTRIBUTOR Universal Pictures

ollywood may continue to rule their deaths in 1971. the company was overwhelmed by the people in the UK and outside of the UK, the international animation “I think that knowing [Briggs] over level of coverage the TV special received. which isn’t easy.” H sector but the UK film industry the years has helped tremendously,” says “The general public had such an It also takes deep pockets to is ramping up its efforts to make a Mainwood. “We have built up a personal incredible reaction to The Snowman and distribute animated feature films, mark in this space. relationship with him and a level of trust.” The Snowdog, with so much positivity,” particularly family animated features, It was the late producer John she recalls. “Interestingly, with Raymond since the target audience is traditionally Recently, companies like Aardman Coates (who produced a plethora of UK there has never been a book or a film expensive to reach, coupled with the high Studios have made their imprint in the animation ranging from Yellow Submarine that hasn’t worked.” She cites the last level of visibility that US studio animated market with their stop-motion features to The Snowman) who first got the ball animated feature film based on Briggs’ feature films get in being backed by such as Shaun the Sheep. Hand-drawn rolling on Ethel & Ernest. work – When The Wind Blows in 1986 – big budget merchandising and animated features, however, tend to be Before he died in 2012, he passed as a triumph in the international sector: branding campaigns. few and far between but London-based on the baton to producer Camilla Deakin “I am sure that back then it was a The UK film tax relief has always Lupus Films is looking to address this with and her business partner Ruth Fielding, challenge to raise the money but I found been open to feature films whether live a full-length feature of Raymond Briggs’ who obtained the rights to the project the number of territories around the world action or animation but thanks to the new graphic novel Ethel & Ernest. and are currently in the throes of bringing that it sold to staggering.” incentive for TV animation amounting to Roger Mainwood, an animator on the animated feature to the big screen Deakin says it’s Briggs’ breadth 25% of UK spend, the ability to get home- a raft of Briggs’ film and TV adaptations through their production banner of work and his sense of nostalgia that grown animated projects off the ground including The Snowman and the Lupus Films. endears him to the British public. “There has become, says Deakin, a smaller Snowdog (2012) and Christmas classic Lupus has a history with Briggs’ is something timeless to his work but also mountain to climb. The Snowman (1982), is set to direct the content, having most recently produced reassuringly old-fashioned,” she says. “In Deakin, who previously served as story, which chronicles the lives of Briggs’ The Snowman and The Snowdog (which many ways Ethel & Ernest is a history of Commissioning Editor for Animation at parents from their first meeting in 1928 to is dedicated to Coates) and Deakin says the twentieth century, seen through the Channel 4, says that now the animation eyes of an ordinary family.” sector qualifies for TV animation under But Briggs is also a social the tax credit system in addition to film, commentator, says Mainwood: “There it makes “a huge difference” to the are many aspects of this story that are animation production sector. very relevant to today’s society. There are “For years we were struggling to interesting political connections.” retain talent or intellectual property and However, the challenges of bringing we couldn’t compete with the French, this body of work to the big screen were the Canadians or the Germans who all by no means small. had a level of government support that “Up until six months ago, the we didn’t have.” biggest challenge was putting the money Mainwood says the film could not together,” says Deakin, who now believes have happened without public funding: the UK is finally coming around to the idea “The Welsh Government, Ffilm Cymru of investing in family movies. “If they are Wales, the BFI and the BBC in particular done right, they are the films that make have put incredible amounts of money the most at the box office,” she says. “The into this film and whilst we don’t trick is getting them right. You need really have a huge budget, their help is strong source material that will appeal to tremendously important.”

22 BFI.ORG.UK The animation and production team at ETHELLupus Films, London (Photo: Paul Marc Mitchell) PRODUCER CAMILLA DEAKIN AND DIRECTOR ROGER MAINWOOD’S ADAPTATION OF RAYMOND BRIGGS’ CLASSIC BOOK IS & A HAND-DRAWN LABOUR OF LOVE ERNEST fortunate with the talent they were able to On the animation side, Shaw and attract for Ethel & Ernest, as Mainwood Dodd spent large amounts of time with explains: “We have a very good network. Briggs, in order to better understand the A lot of the people who worked on The integral details of the film, such as how Illusionist are now working on Ethel & Ernest walked, how the couple aged and Ernest. In that sense, we have been very other particulars, which give the film its fortunate.” Robin Shaw (Assistant Director colour. “We see it as a good thing that on The Snowman and the Snowdog) Raymond is so involved and supportive,” came on board the project as art director says Mainwood. “He has been very and Peter Dodd (senior animator on The encouraging about everything we are Illusionist) was hired as animation director. doing here.” “Robin is an incredibly talented artist,” Having carefully fleshed out the says Mainwood. Shaw even cites Briggs script, the team put together a storyboard as a major inspiration and influence in his in the early stages of the project before own career. Mainwood recalls: “He even setting out to do the voice recordings Lupus Films, London threatened to camp outside of my house Jim Broadbent was soon cast to until he came on board the film.” voice Ernest while Brenda Blethyn was The team produced an incredible given the role of Ethel. Mainwood says that Deakin says it’s not only sourcing films, whereas in Japan and Europe it is a 12 drawings per second, which works when Briggs came along to the first voice financing that makes putting together different story.” The success of films such out to approximately 64,800 animation recordings, their performances had him “in a project like this a struggle. She says as Song of the Sea, The Secret of Kells, drawings for the entire film. “That’s not floods of tears.” the changes in the industry and shifts in Persepolis and Chico and Rita prove there including all the storyboard panels, layout “He said it was like having his market taste have posed a challenge. is an audience for hand-drawn animation, drawings and hand-painted backgrounds,” parents back in the room,” recalls Additionally, she says it’s difficult for he says. notes Deakin. Deakin. “It made for an incredibly UK producers and animators to compete There is, of course, the other and Lupus uses an animation software evocative moment.” with big studios such as Disney, Pixar somewhat obvious challenge of hand- package called TVPaint and animated on Deakin stresses that projects like and DreamWorks, meaning supporting drawing each scene, a unique and tablets called Cintiqs. Ethel & Ernest are central to the future home-grown animated films is laborious obstacle that many feature Briggs, keen to keep a hand in a health of the UK film industry. “The UK is somewhat alien to the UK. filmmakers do not ever have to face. project so dear to him, took an executive recognised for being good at animation, “In Japan there is a strong tradition “There is no getting away from producer’s credit on Ethel & Ernest, and and hopefully with this film it is a perfect of hand-drawn animation with Studio the time that it takes to hand draw was able to have a hands-on approach coming together of great animators and a Ghibli in particular and directors like everything,” says Mainwood. “Not to to the film. beautiful book by a British author who is Miyazaki,” she says. “That tradition also mention all of the life-drawing skills and Working on the script with Briggs, loved by the nation,” she says. exists in France and other European illustration skills that are required for a says Mainwood, was an eye-opening “It is nice to be reviving a speciality countries that have a much stronger film like this. It isn’t a cartoony film so you journey. “We tend to think of Raymond that in this country we were very good tradition of supporting their own animated need that talent and that time and it has primarily as an illustrator and forget that he at, but has waned in recent years. It is a film industry compared to that which to be a labour of love because technology is actually a very accomplished writer with great time to show off the craftspeople exists in the UK.” can’t do it for you or cut corners for you an incredible economy for language that is and the animators, who are at the top of Mainwood points to a different on a project like this.” very finely tuned and easy to get wrong. their game.” culture in the States: “In the US, hand- Twenty lead animators and more I found out very early on that he liked exact drawn films have almost completely than 20 assistant animators compiled phrases and words, which was quite a WORDS BY JOSEPH WALSH disappeared, especially in terms of feature the team for the project and Lupus was learning curve.” FIRST LOOK

Sennia Nanua in Colm McCarthy’s She Who Brings Gifts, shot in the West Midlands, June 2015