Ahead of its proposed premiere at Broadway Cinema later this year, we hear all about psychological thriller Beautiful Meadows...
Tell us a bit about Beautiful Meadow...
Beautiful Meadow follows Roman (played by Tarik Badwan), a holiday cottage host. Through years of traumatic, emotional, and sometimes, physical abuse from his mother (played by Gráinne Kelly), Roman struggles with paralysing flashbacks. His troubled and dark mind is fixated on his mother's message that God is the only person he should love and all else should be forgotten. Through the duration of the film, which is written and directed by the immensely talented Laurence Mason-Guetta, we follow Roman as he searches for redemption and freedom in the wrong ways.
What themes are you aiming to tackle with the film?
The film is about abuse. It's about the effect that childhood trauma has on a person and how much it can hurt, for years. It's about the difficulty of overcoming such a thing and how it can go horrifically wrong. Laurence has such an incredible gift for writing and directing real and grounded stories, and I think that the grounded nature of the story is what makes it so chilling.
You've described it as a short psychological thriller/horror. Why was this approach the right one to take for this story?
It needed to be dark. In fact, initially (in development), it was much, much darker than it ended up being. It still is, we haven't held back. It's still very, very dark and it's still very, very uncomfortable - but just through the process shaping the film into what it needed to be, a lot of the vulgarity was cut in favour of ideas that were more emotionally impactful. Our editor, Lisa Rustage, along with Laurence, did such an amazing job at cutting the film to become just what it needed. It started as a horror and ended up being a psychological thriller that will bear heavy on your mind and tell an incredibly gruelling, uncomfortable and emotional story.
You're aiming to premiere the film at Broadway Cinema in May. How excited are you to showcase the short at such an important venue in Nottingham?
It was always Broadway. It's the heart of Notts. It was always the perfect location. Broadway's commitment to the arts and opportunities for young creatives in this city is exactly what drives us too. The idea that all the young creatives and young filmmakers we brought on for this will get to see it in the cinema and network with people in the industry is exciting. The story of Beautiful Meadow is incredible, but the part it plays in the journey of the future filmmakers that were a part of this is the story that excites us the most.
We are committed to providing opportunities for filmmakers in Nottingham. It was so important when finding a crew that we fulfilled that commitment
How important was local talent for this film, both in front of behind the camera?
Like I said about Broadway, we are committed to providing opportunities for filmmakers in Nottingham. It was so important when finding a crew that we fulfilled that commitment. We want Nottingham to be the place to be. Not just for films but for filmmaking.
I spotted local talent in the music too - including Chloe Rodgers. How did that come about?
Lamented, lyrically, is heartbreaking but stunningly beautiful. There was no question in our minds; we needed Chloe Rodgers and we needed Lamented. We've always been fans of her music and she, from the very early stages of development, was in our minds. Through meeting her to chat about the possibility of Beautiful Meadow, we actually became really great friends. Her team was extremely supportive, flexible and patient with us and I don't need to tell you about Chloe. She's an amazing human and we're so happy and proud that she's a part of this picture.
Will you be submitting it to film festivals or trying to develop it into a feature? What does the future look like for Beautiful Meadow?
We will be submitting it to many festivals across the Midlands. We're serious about this film and we're serious about giving our crew the biggest boost we can to further their careers as much as possible. Festivals are integral to that. However, above all else, we just want people to see it and enjoy it.
Keep up-to-date with Beautiful Meadow by following Barker Studios on Instagram
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