Plot Synopsis
The mountainous and remote Wakhan corridor, 1988. Daphne, a young English rose finds herself in over her head. Accused of the murder of a young boy from a tribal family at a time of war between the local people and foreign invaders, she must flee for her life and take a new identity.
2011. The halls of Oxford University in England. Mina, a female student, is a beautiful misfit living at home as she can’t afford campus fees. One night her everyday life is turned upside down. All that she has assumed about who she is destroyed in a violent invasion on her family home. Her parents are murdered and only herself and her 10 year old sister survive. They are taken into protection, and the real truth is revealed: Mina’s mother, Daphne, had a dark secret. Daphne was not only accused of murder back in 1988, but had an illicit and dangerous affair with the leader of the tribal family with whom she stayed. Mina is his daughter, and he wants her back. She is repulsed by her true identity and tries to understand if her natural instinct to defend herself against her attackers was due to an inherited violent ability. This man, her father, is in hiding, running a rebel group in a far off place and slaughtering many people in the process, now including her family. The only way to protect her sister, all she has left, is to face him and embark upon a deadly journey into the unknown. She must now decide if it is time to fight or flee.
Written by Ben Hervey
Ben won two screenwriting awards: he is writing ‘All Souls’, a ghost story, for the Met / Skillset Writers Training Scheme award, and has won the UK Film Council’s First Feature award for his horrifying period drama ‘The Mysteries’. Cesar award-winning director Dominik Moll (‘Harry’, ‘He’s here to help’, ‘Lemming’) is overseeing work on ‘The Mysteries’.
Production Notes
Market Place:
Shoot date:
Currently:
Locations:
Produced by:
Directed by:
Senior Consultant:
Casting by:
Stunts by:
Special Effects:
Partners:
Format:
Men aged 18 – 25
17th October
In Production
Oxford and Jordan
Rupert Whitaker
Vicky Jewson
Julia Verdin
Gaby Kester
Glenn Marks
Elements FX
FlairJet, Lodge Hill Garage
Oxford Film and Video Company
JJ Marketing
HD
Julia Verdin – Senior Consultant
British Producer Julia Verdin has established herself as one of Hollywood’s leading independent Producers having produced to date twenty nine feature films. Julia has produced many theatrical releases including the critically acclaimed Newmarket release ‘Stander’, a British/Canadian/South African co-production starring Tom Jane, Deborah Unger, Dexter Fletcher and David O’Hara and directed by Bronwen Hughes (‘Forces of Nature’).
Julia also Executive Produced ‘Merchant of Venice’, directed by Michael Radford, starring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes and released by Sony Classics to excellent reviews. She also Co-Produced ‘Riding the Bullet’ based on a Stephen King story directed by Mick Garris and starring David Arquette, Jonathan Jackson, Erica Christensen and Barbara Hershey.
Other recent projects include ‘The Least Among You’, starring Lou Gossett Jr, Lauren Holly and William Devane, that premiered at The Palm Springs International Festival and was released by Lionsgate. Currently in post-production is ‘Two Jacks’ based on the Leo Tolstoy story ‘Two Hussars’ written and directed by Bernard Rose, starring Sienna Miller, Danny Huston, Jack Huston, Jacqueline Bisset and Billy Zane. Julia is known for her great eye for spotting upcoming talent as well as her strong sense of story, and for delivering great production value on the films she produces. She also encourages and mentors many young filmmakers and serves on the board of directors of BAFTA in LA.
Gaby Kester – Casting Director
An established British Casting Director, Gaby has been in the film casting business for over ten years. She is currently working on ‘Street Dance 2’ and ‘Hysteria’. Her past credits include ‘The Holiday’, ‘Nanny McPhee’, ‘Corpse Bride’ and ‘King Arthur’, amongst others.
Elements FX – Special Effects
Elements FX is run by Johnny Rafique and Nick Rideout who, between them, have over thirty years experience in the business of special effects. They have worked their magic on a wide array of feature films including ‘Charlie ’, ‘The Descent’, ‘In Your Dreams’, ‘The Broken’ and ‘Eden Lake’.
Glenn Marks – Stunt Coordinator
Stunt Coordinator Glenn Marks has worked in stunts for a massive range of high profile TV and Film projects since the early 80’s. Early feature film credits include the 1991 ‘Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’ and ‘Beyond Bedlam’. Glenn later worked on Guy Ritchie’s seminal ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ in 1998 and more recently coordinated the stunts on ‘Bright Star’, with British actor Ben Whishaw, ‘The Wolfman’, starring Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro, and ‘Robin Hood’ starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.
Director’s Statement
‘Born Of War’ will be fast paced, edgy, raw, addictive and beautiful.It will be unique in the sense that it will provide cinema with one of its first, truly believable and real female heroines: an everyday girl who is thrust into a violent world and has to rely on her instincts, to fight or flee. I wanted to see what happened on screen when you threatened an ordinary woman’s life and how this could translate into an extraordinary course of events and actions. When she gets punched she bleeds, when she tries to fight she makes mistakes, she’s fallible but through being so honest finds her inner strength. This is not a victim’s story by any stretch.
The whole ethos behind Born Of War is to be following our female heroine all the way. We are in her perspective throughout the entire film, and we will shoot it accordingly. The action will happen to us as an audience rather than played out as a large set piece, it will feel immediate and truly gripping, as it would in reality. The drama will be accentuated by the very fact that we ourselves are rooting so much for the lead character. The style will have a beauty to it, harking back to films such as Luc Besson’s ‘Nikita’ or ‘Leon’, with deep colours and beautifully cinematographically composed images. I have made films all my life and action has always been my turn on, it comes to me naturally, the sequencing of images and visuals can be so impactive and compelling, and can give your characters such an emotive backdrop to unfold upon. Born Of War - think a female Jason Bourne meets Run Lola Run.