Donor Unknown

A co-production with Redbird Films (More4, Arte, NRK).

A twenty-first century tale of identity and genetic inheritance and the family of the future.

For the first time in history a generation of children born through artificial insemination are old enough to search for their biological fathers. Donor Unknown will follow two young people as they first decide and then travel to meet their father for the first time and as they navigate the increasingly complex maze of new and constantly evolving family relationships.

In the past, parents of donor-conceived children were encouraged to stay silent to protect the child. Now, there is more emphasis on openness and honesty, and on the rights of children to know their genetic parents. But this is unknown territory, the first generation of children making an extraordinary journey through a minefield of secret hopes and potential disappointment.

The Sundance Institute has announced that Jerry Rothwell's film, Donor Unknown, a Met Film/ Redbird Media co-productions, has been awarded one of 18 grants in its latest round of funding. Donor Unknown has also received grants from Cinereach and the Gucci Tribecca Fund. The film is funded by broadcasters More 4, Arte and NRK.

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Director: Jerry Rothwell

Producers: Hilary Durman, Al Morrow

Executive Producer: Jonny Persey

The Infidel

The Infidel is the latest feature from Slingshot and Met Film Production, written by David Baddiel and directed by Josh Appignanesi.

MAHMUD MAZZEER (Omid Djalili) is an everyday member of London’s East End Muslim community; a successful mini cab business owner, loving husband to Saamiya (Archie Panjabi) and father of two. His son Rashid is busy preparing for his wedding to fiancé Uzma – as much a part of the family as the other Mazeers. But this sun dappled family is about to get shaken from the roots. After Mahmud’s mother suddenly dies, a chance discovery reveals that he isn’t the man he thought he was. Not only was he was adopted at birth by his Muslim parents – but he’s Jewish to boot. And to add to his woes, Uzma’s new stepfather is Arshad El-Mustafa – a hardline Muslim cleric (Art Malik) who is looking for the perfect Muslim family for his recent stepdaughter.

Mahmud’s world is turned upside down as he struggles to understand his new identity. As he embarks on a hilarious journey of mid-life self discovery, the only person he can turn to is an unlikely ally LENNY, a drunk Jewish cabbie (Richard Schiff). The revelation of his Jewishness has disastrous effects on Mahmud’s family life, his business and his friends: and is met my deep scepticism by the local RABBI. Can our hero manage to pull off being both a Muslim and a Jew with all that he holds dear still intact? The Infidel is a commercial comedy of community and cliché; family and fatwa.

 
Watch the trailer or visit the website infidelmovie.com

Status: In Post Production

Director: Josh Appignanesi

Writer: David Baddiel

Producers: Arvind Ethan David, Stewart le Marechal, Uzma Hasan

Men Who Swim

A co-production with AMP Film. (BBC,ZDF/ARTE,SVT)

Men Who Swim Together is a humorous and poignant look at a group of middle aged men who have found unlikely success as members of Sweden's all male synchronised swimming team.

The AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival Audience Award Winners were announced on Sunday June 27th 2010 as the seven-day doc fest came to an end after screening more than 100 films from over 50 countries.The Audience Award for a feature went to our very own Men Who Swim! A co-production between AMP and Met Film, directed by Dylan Williams.

Director: Dylan Williams
Producer: Al Morrow, Erik Pauser
Executive Producer: Jerry Rothwell

Watch the trailer of Men Who Swim

French Film

Written by BAFTA nominated, Aschlin Ditta (Scenes of a Sexual Nature, The Catherine Tate Show), French Film is directed by award-winning commercials and short filmmaker Jackie Oudney, making her feature directorial debut. French Film stars an outstanding cast; Hugh Bonneville (Tsunami: The Aftermath, Notting Hill, Iris - BAFTA Best Supporting Actor nominated); Anne-Marie Duff (The Virgin Queen, Shameless - BAFTA TV nominated, Nowhere Boy); Douglas Henshall (Primeval, Lawless Heart, Angels and Insects); Victoria Hamilton (Scoop, Mansfield Park) and renowned Manchester United football star turned actor, Eric Cantona.

French Film is an original and intelligent romantic comedy which playfully pits the French against the Brits when it comes to relationships. Journalist Jed (Hugh Bonneville) prepares to interview French auteur and self-appointed expert on the nature of love - Thierry Grimandi (Eric Cantona). Jed is dead-set on dismissing the auteur's musings as absurd until his own relationship with Cheryl (Victoria Hamilton) starts to fall apart, and he is forced to re-evaluate everything he thought he knew about love. But Jed's not the only one.  Even drinking buddy Marcus (Douglas Henshall) starts to prefer the subject of love to football when his perfect relationship with Sophie (Anne-Marie-Duff) takes an unexpected turn.

Watch the trailer of French Film

Status: Released on 15th May 2009 by Vertigo Films. Represented by The Works International.

Producers: Slingshot Studios in association with Met Film and JCF

Director: Jackie Oudney

Writer: Aschlin Ditta

Little Ashes

Before Dali became one of the most famous artists of all time, and a legend we frequently dismiss as a fool and a buffoon, there was a young man desperate to make something of himself, an extraordinary talent and a friendship that would define his art and those around him.

Little Ashes tells the extraordinary story of the relationship between Salvador Dali, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Luis Bunuel - a moving story of friendship, love and betrayal, and a tale of the complexities of young love and sexual identity.


Watch the Little Ashes trailer

Status: Released in the UK, US and Spain on 8th May 2009.

Director: Paul Morrison

Writer: Phillipa Goslett

Producers: Carlo Dusi, Jonny Persey and Jaume Vilalta

Heavy Load

Heavy Load are Lewes' answer to the Ramones, a punk outfit subject to the combustible flux of ego, ambition, fantasy, expectation and desire that fuels any emerging band.  But they're also, uniquely, made up of musicians with and without learning disabilities, which makes the bands' survival a precarious negotiation between two different worlds: on the one hand the institutional timetable of day centres, work placements and social workers; on the other the chaotic slacker life of rehearsal rooms, studios and gigs.  Home life and band-life; from invisibility to stardom of a sort and back again.

Watch the trailer of Heavy Load

Status: Released in cinemas in October 2008

Director: Jerry Rothwell 

Producers: Jonny Persey, Al Morrow, Jerry Rothwell

Deep Water, an APT Films Production.

In 1968 nine men competed to be the first person to sail alone and non-stop around the world. As the single handers wrestled their boats through the mountainous seas of the Southern Ocean, Donald Crowhurst, an electronics engineer and week-end sailor became a unlikely hero when it appeared that his revolutionary boat was going to carry him home in record-breaking speed. Two weeks later his abandoned boat is found floating in the middle of the Atlantic.

Deep Water is directed by Louise Osmond & Jerry Rothwell with finance from Pathe, who distributed the film theatrically in the UK, UK Film Council and Film Four.

Deep Water is now available on DVD to buy or rent. To buy or rent online visit Amazon.

 
Winner Best Documentary Film, Rome International Film Festival, 2006.

Winner Best Use of Footage in a Feature Length Production or Film, Focal Awards 2007.

Nominated Best Documentary at the British Independent Film Awards, 2007.

Nominated Best Documentary Feature Film at The Grierson Awards, 2007.

Named in the Sunday Times 'The Best Of The Decade'.

 

Watch Deep Water Trailer  and read reviews.



 

 

The Pied Piper of Hutzovina, an APT Films Production.

In the summer of 2004, on a car journey in Eastern Europe, Pavla Fleisher met and fell in love with Eugene Hutz, lead singer of Gypsy Punk band Gogol Bordello. Captivated by his energy and his musical verve, and desperate to get to know him better, she decided to make a film about him.

The Pied Piper of Hutzovina follows Eugene and Pavla on their subsequent road trip through Eugene's home country, Ukraine. Theirs is a journey which tests their relationship and challenges their perceptions of the music they both love.

For more information or to buy or rent the film visit the official website
 

To buy this film please click here.
 

Watch the Pied Piper trailer

 

Solomon and Gaenor, an APT Films Production.

APT's first feature film, was nominated for an Oscar in 2000. It is a love story set in the Welsh Valleys in 1911. Solomon is a Jewish pedlar, Gaenor a chapel-going coalminer's daughter. The film traces the fear, confusion and excitement of falling in love with someone from another people and another religion - and the hostility their fragile love engenders from their families and communities.

An APT production, Solomon and Gaenor was financed by S4C and Film Four with assistance from the Welsh and English Arts Councils, and produced by Sheryl Crown.

Watch the Solomon and Gaenor trailer and read reviews.

Solomon and Gaenor
Welsh Bafta: Winner Best Film 2001
Academy Award Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film 2000
Best Feature Film: Nantucket Film Festival, USA, 2000
Best Film: Verona International Film Festival, Italy, 1999
Second Prize: Emden and Wurzburg International Film Festivals, Germany, 1999
Golden Dolphin for Best Film: Troia International Film, 1999

Wondrous Oblivion, an APT Films Production.

Eleven-year-old David Wiseman is mad about cricket but no good at it.  He has all of the kit but none of the skill, and he's a laughing stock at school.  So when a Jamaican family move in next door and build a cricket net in the back garden, David is in seventh heaven.

But this is 1960's England, and when the neighbours start to make life difficult for the new arrivals, David's Jewish family is caught in the middle, and he has to choose between fitting in and standing up for the new friends who have turned his world upside down.
 

To buy or rent the film click here.


Watch the Wondrous Oblivion trailer and read reviews.

 
 

Everyone's Child

Everyone's Child is the story of two children's abrupt journey into a world of adult responsibility. It is a story of love and of the triumph of human spirit in the face of tragedy. The film was made in Zimbabwe in 1993-96 to tackle a growing problem throughout Africa of children being orphaned as a result of AIDS, and has been seen by an estimated 90 million people throughout the continent, through cinema and broadcast.

Tamari and Itai are devastated following the tragic death of both of their parents. As family and neighbours turn their heads, the children are left with nothing. Frustrated and despairing, Itai tries his luck in the big city, leaving Tamari at home to fend for herself and their younger brother and sister.

For the children this is a time of fear and survival. For the people around them it must become a question of compassion. In the end it is only tragedy that can bridge the gulf of denial between their two worlds and make the community realise that these are everyone’s children.

Read the reviews.