Shane Meadows-approved short Blackpool might be getting a little longer… More on the very British indie below.
A short highlighting mental health and suicide awareness is being developed into a feature-length film, according to its creative team.
Set and shot in the West-coast seaside town, Blackpool stars Andrew Ellis (This Is England) and George Bukhari (Years and Years) as a couple of people (one dressed as a parrot) at the end of their tether.
Here’s the synopsis for the short film version:
He’s a man who has had enough. After 30 years of too many downs and not enough ups on life’s rollercoaster, Billy embarks on a final lost weekend in the funfair of a town that is Blackpool. The place he loved as a kid seemed as good as anywhere to end it all. Well, at least try to. Unfortunately, like so many other things in his chaotic world, it doesn’t quite go how he had hoped.
In a hilarious, drink and drug-fuelled romp, Billy staggers from one failed attempt to another, but then suddenly finds a reason to live in all the madness. His redemption arrives in the shape of a grown man dressed as a parrot. Forgetting his problems for a second, Billy instinctively saves the suicidal parrot from ending it all in the Irish sea and in doing so, Billy finds a reason to live.
Director Stephen Gallacher says, “Blackpool is a film that’s deeply personal to me. It’s a love letter to my hometown—written on the back of a suicide note. A hard- hitting, darkly comic story about life, death, and a giant parrot, told through the lens of those who truly know the place: working-class filmmakers who’ve lived it”.
“The one thing I would like people to take away from this film is hope”, adds screenwriter Phil Pearson. “Even in the most desperate of times, you have to try to find a reason to go on and believe things might just get better”.
Check out the Blackpool trailer here:
