New project from makers of The Last King of Scotland
In production, Death of a President director Gabriel Range joins forces with writer and producer of The Last King of Scotland for a new Channel 4 drama for theatrical release.
Channel 4, in partnership with the UK Film Council, the Film Agency for Wales and Limelight, has commissioned an original feature film from the makers of The Last King of Scotland, starring upcoming international talent, Wunmi Mosaku (Moses Jones), Isaach De Bankole (The Limits of Control, 24, Casino Royale) Lubna Azabal (Occupation, Body of Lies), Igal Naor (The House of Saddam) and Nonso Anozie (Occupation, Atonement). Writer Jeremy Brock and producer Andrea Calderwood collaborate for the first time since the Oscar®-winning The Last King of Scotland. Gabriel Range, who developed the powerful script with Jeremy and Andrea, will direct the currently untitled project. Inspired by real life events, it is an extraordinary story about one woman's fight for freedom from modern day slavery.
"The figures for people trafficked into domestic servitude are even more difficult to ascertain, as these people, by definition, work alone or in small groups in residential properties, are scattered and very rarely come to the attention of the UK authorities." Home Affairs Committee report on Human Trafficking in the UK 2009
Home Office figures put the number of trafficking victims currently in slavery in this country at 5,000 people. The real life accounts of displaced persons sold into domestic servitude here in the UK were the inspiration for this as yet unnamed film.
In the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, 12 year old Malia is snatched from the arms of her father during a Muharaleen raid on their village. Beaten and sold into slavery, she spends the next six years of her life working for a Sudanese family, then at 18, Malia (Mosaku) is sent to work in London.
The city swiftly becomes as much a prison as the home in which she is kept; hidden in plain sight, Malia's desperate situation goes unnoticed or uncared for by everyone she comes into contact with. Stripped of her passport and living in terror of what might happen to her family in the Sudan should she speak out, Malia is trapped in an unforgiving, alien environment.
Despairing of the life to which she has been condemned, she has to call on all her strength to make a dramatic escape back to Sudan and to the father who never gave up hope she was alive, and who never stopped searching for her.
The 90 minute feature currently in production is being made by Slate Films and The Borough Picture Company and is co-financed by Channel 4, the UK Film Council, the Film Agency for Wales, Limelight and Molinare. The film is being made for theatrical release, with ContentFilm handling international sales for the film, including profiling the film at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival in February. The film will have its UK television premiere on Channel 4 in 2010.
Channel 4 Head of Drama, Camilla Campbell says; "This project continues C4's established reputation for tackling difficult subject matter that sets the agenda. With the writer and producer of the Oscar®- winning Last King of Scotland, as well as the director of Death of a President, this will be an outstanding piece of film-making which will raise challenging and difficult questions."
Lenny Crooks, Head of the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund, said: "The UK Film Council is pleased to have invested Lottery funding that has helped to make this inspirational feature film possible. It tells a tough human story with care and compassion, and in the strong collaborative hands of Gabriel, Jeremy and Andrea, it will give UK audiences an uncompromising insight into the complexities of Malia's world. With Content Film handling international distribution, I look forward to seeing the film reach out to other territories, starting with Berlin this month."
Pauline Burt, Chief Executive of the Film Agency for Wales added "we're delighted to be able to facilitate Gabriel Range's work, especially alongside such a talented and proven team. Gabriel is one of the most interesting, inspirational and talented directors to have emerged from Wales recently, and it's particularly rewarding that this project has a truly international relevance and appeal."
Press Contact
Alex Wells
020 7306 8726
awells@channel4.co.uk
Picture contact
Chris Worwood
cworwood@channel4.co.uk
Notes to Editors
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a public service broadcaster funded solely from commercial revenues. It receives free spectrum in return for fulfilling its public service obligations as set out in the 1990 and 1996 Broadcasting Acts and its licence, issued by Ofcom, which was last updated in December 2004.
More than any UK broadcaster, it tries new ideas, takes risks and presents alternative points of view. Channel 4's public service role is underpinned by its aim to
- nuture new talent and original ideas
- challenge people to see the work differently
- champion alternative voices and fresh perspectives
- inspire change in people's lives
Channel 4's drama output for 2010 includes: Julie Walters starring as Mo Mowlam in a one-off feature; brand new series of multi-award winning Skins, Shameless and Misfits; We Were Faces, a four part serial from BAFTA winning director Shane Meadows, marking his TV debut; a four part adaptation of William Boyd's best selling novel Any Human Heart; and Homeland a new four part serial from critically acclaimed writer/director, Peter Kosminsky. As well as Coming Up, a season of original half-hour dramas and the only talent scheme in the UK giving burgeoning writers and directors the opportunity to make an authored drama with a guaranteed network TV broadcast.
UK FILM COUNCIL (www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk)
- The UK Film Council is the Government-backed lead agency for film in the UK, supporting the UK film industry, celebrating UK film culture and nurturing UK film talent at home and abroad.
- Since its creation in 2000 the UK Film Council has backed more than 900 films, shorts and features, which have won over 300 awards and entertained more than 200 million people around the world.
- Its support develops new filmmakers, funds exciting new British films and gets a wider choice of films to audiences throughout the UK. It also invests in training British talent, promoting Britain as an international filmmaking location and raising the profile of British films abroad. In addition, it funds the British Film Institute.
- Films backed by the UK Film Council include Man on Wire, Nowhere Boy, Fish Tank, In the Loop, Happy-Go-Lucky, Adulthood, Bend it like Beckham, The Constant Gardener, Gosford Park, Red Road, St Trinian's, This is England, Touching the Void, Vera Drake and The Wind that Shakes the Barley.
- Current UK Film Council funding initiatives include:
- the world's first Digital Screen Network, which has invested in 240 digital screens in cinemas across the country, increasing film choice, bringing the 3D experience to a wider audience, and ensuring the UK has more digital screens than any other European country;
- over 200 film societies and independent regional film venues;
- UK film festivals, including the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival and the Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival;
- Skillset, the UK skills and training industry body for the creative industries;
- First Light, which has given 12,000 children and young people the chance to get involved in filmmaking; and
- FILMCLUB, an after school club which gives children in 7,000 schools free weekly access to classic and popular films.
Film Agency Wales
- Established in July 2006, the Film Agency for Wales is the sole Agency for film in Wales, with a remit to ensure that the economic, cultural and educational aspects of film are effectively represented in Wales, the UK and the world. As a strategic agency, the Film Agency aims to facilitate the emergence of a viable and sustainable Welsh film industry and to promote a vibrant and dynamic film culture.
- The Agency's priority is to identify and nurture Welsh filmmaking talent – particularly writers, directors, writer-directors and producers – by supporting and encouraging the development of their work, accomplishments and ambitions. Recent films supported include: Gabriel Range's Little Matador; the multi-award winning Mugabe and the White African from Welsh producer, Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock;Marc Evans' Patagonia; Richard Ayoade's Submarine; Hattie Dalton and Vaughan Sivell's Barafundle Bay, and Gideon Koppel's highly acclaimed, Sleep Furiously.
- The Film Agency for Wales supports a broad policy on film education to complement our central priority of creating and maintaining a dynamic film culture across Wales. We aim to enhance film literacy for all and stimulate an appetite for specialised, cultural and non-mainstream films.
Further information is available at www.filmagencywales.com
Molinare
Through its 35 year heritage, Molinare has established itself as one of the UK's leading and well-respected post production houses. From award-winning Television Drama to Oscar-winning Feature films, Molinare's reputation for quality work has developed year on year.
Molinare provides state of the art Digital Intermediate, award winning Visual Effects and Dolby Digital Sound Post Production, and as one of the largest post production houses in the UK, has delivered over 150 feature films in the past 5 years.
Credits include the 2009 documentary feature Oscar winner Man On Wire, The Damned United for Left Bank Pictures, and the Miramax production Everybody's Fine, starring Robert de Niro. Co-production credits include Moon with Liberty Films and Mugabe and the White African with Arturi Films, both shortlisted for the 2010 Bafta awards.
Further information is available at www.molinare.co.uk
