Travel back in time with us to the 17th century as we hear all about Lazar, the fantastical odyssey set in an ancient Sherwood forest which follows a bard, an outlaw and oh, there are some nymphs of course...
Lazar is the latest short film from East Midlands filmmaking duo Rafe and Mike Bird, also known as Bird Bros. The pair wanted to create a film that combined their love of music, their interest in historical Nottinghamshire, and their desire to explore the theme of Otherness. The brothers wanted this film to explore the purpose of music - questioning whether music should just be a vessel for simple entertainment, or whether music should attempt to communicate deeper truths about ourselves.
The film follows a 17th century bard (Joseph Emms) who is travelling through Sherwood Forest whilst attempting to write a song about a local outlaw on the run named Lazar Pete. The film is shot on location in an ancient section of Sherwood Forest, which lends to the film a sense of mystery and wonder, as if the viewer is being enveloped by the past.
The bard encounters a mysterious man on the road, who we soon find out is the outlaw (Devon Junior) that the bard has been singing about. We learn that the outlaw has vitiligo, that he has not committed a crime but has instead been persecuted because of his skin condition. Devon Junior does a fantastic job in this role - he has vitiligo himself, and I think he adds an element of real emotional authenticity to the character. Both Junior and Emms do very well with the humourous and slightly surreal tone of this film, whilst being able to convey real vulnerability when the script calls for it.
The bard and Lazar Pete set out together on a fantastical odyssey through Sherwood, encountering on their way several hostile nymphs, who inject the narrative with a sense of heightened reality. As the film goes on the bard forms a friendship with Pete as he learns to outgrow his former prejudices.
I met with Mike and Rafe to discuss Lazar and, as you’ll read, emphasise the importance of championing the Midlands in their film. This comes strongly across in Lazar, which brought historical Nottingham to life and presented Sherwood Forest as a mythological and magical place. This film is really special - both as a representation of the Midlands, and as an exploration of artistic expression and friendship.
This film is really original and creative so I wanted to ask if you had any main inspirations going into the film?
Rafe: There’s two that spring to mind. One of them is, almost subconsciously, The Green Knight, especially with its whole folkloric telling of stories and Triangle of Sadness because the mid-turn is mind-blowing and totally different.
Mike: Casting even further back, there is a little bit of British comedy stuff, like The Mighty Boosh, and surreal stuff like The Big Train.
Rafe: Yeah, like British sketch shows. I mean now we’re just delving into our childhoods as a form of therapy, but also Tenacious D, a film we watched a lot when we were younger, and that’s about a musician. And I think the idea right there is the comedy side of things, but also the story side of things, which both inspired it.
The film is set in the 17th century, is there anything about that historical context that appealed to you?
Mike: A lot of the reason for it being set historically was to do with this idea of being able to bump into somebody and not knowing who they are and having a bit of a mystery in the world. As we were researching along the lines of minstrels and traveling musicians, it was an interesting time around the turn of the 17th century because traveling independent musicians were being outlawed and they had to have licenses, because the crown was worried about sedition and spreading dissent through song and poetry.
Rafe: This created the character of the bard as someone who views himself as this last rock and roll star, which then plays into the overall theme.
Music is something that we can quickly turn into something quite funny. We can instantly make it ridiculous, like, putting children in pasties.
The bard character is great. Is the theme of musical expression something you always wanted to explore?
Rafe: It was definitely one of the earliest iterations. He was always gonna be a musician because we are quite musical people.
Mike: My background is in music and audio, so I guess it’s something that’s probably naturally in my mind, and just something that I relate to.
Rafe: Music is is something that we can quickly turn into something quite funny. We can instantly make it ridiculous, like, putting children in pasties.
Was it difficult to shoot on location?
Mike: Funnily enough I think it was more of an anxiety going into it than it actually ended up being. We were very blessed at the time to have good weather, there were only a couple of rainy spells.
Rafe: And the crew were amazing, holding umbrellas over the cast and trying to stop smoke from the fire getting in their eyes. We were really lucky to find a place that was part of Sherwood Forest, like ancient Sherwood Forest, but it’s private land, so we didn’t have to deal with the public. But then there were just things like - on one day, there was a school trip there that no one had told us about, and they were doing rifle practice.
Mike: They were shooting, and I just heard this woosh, and I was like ‘what’s going on?’ and I turn around and see the back of a target, and I think ‘hold on… if that’s the back of the target then they’re shooting this way.’
Rafe: But thanks to the crew and how good they were, when we felt like we were falling off the train tracks because of something location related, it would just get back on track and then we’d carry on.
Mike: Yeah, and Naps, our producer, was really good at that, keeping our wheels on when it felt like it was falling to pieces. So yeah, it definitely presented challenges, but I think it had to be done out there.
And then Jake shows up and we’re like ‘there’s your changing room’ and it’s just a tent, and we were like ‘oh my god, he’s never gonna work with us again.’
What was it like working with all the actors in this?
Rafe: We had Devon, who played Lazar Pete, he had never acted before. We knew we wanted someone with vitiligo for the role. He sent a self tape over, and our mum was in the kitchen, and she was like ‘I like him! He’s really good!’ We had been looking for a couple months at this point for someone with vitiligo, and struggling to find anyone, and he sort of fell into our laps. And he was from Sheffield, which was a massive bonus.
Mike: Obviously the character of Lazar Pete is an extreme version, but I think Devon could relate to certain parts of Pete’s backstory. We could just let him take hold of the character completely, which was really cool.
Rafe: And then on the flip side we had someone like Jake Curran (the Constable), a seasoned veteran, who was in Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood and Stardust. And then Jake shows up and we’re like ‘there’s your changing room’ and it’s just a tent, and we were like ‘oh my god, he’s never gonna work with us again.’ And Joe, who played the bard, had done all the prep, he’d written notes, and notes, and notes.
Was it important going into this that you wanted to highlight the story of a character with vitiligo?
Rafe: So the original idea for the script was, we knew we wanted a musician and an outlaw, and we knew we wanted the outlaw to not have done anything bad. And then you (Mike) actually got diagnosed with vitiligo.
Mike: Yeah, and it was through researching it that I came across a little bit of information that said, historically, vitiligo has been misdiagnosed a lot as leprosy, and was associated with diseases that were considered spiritually unclean. So then that kind of clicked into the idea of someone who’s being persecuted for something that they can’t control, that isn’t actually a bad thing.
Was it interesting to be able to depict some of the more mythological and folkloric aspects of English history in this film?
Mike: Yeah, definitely. Because that was one of the things I really like about having this historical context, sometimes it feels like it gives you a little more license to explore things a bit more fantastical. It was a time when people genuinely might believe in those things.
Rafe: I think we like that little bit of weirdness, it goes back to The Mighty Boosh influence, or The Green Knight. You have this magical thing; it’s not necessarily a hardcore fantasy, but it’s just in there.
Do you have any plans for what you’re working on next?
Rafe: Turning Lazar into a feature film or a TV series would be absolutely amazing. We’ve got another period short, a slightly different period.
Mike: And we have another short that is in post-production right now. It’s quite nice, because that one’s set in the modern day. Well, sort of early 2000s.
Do you think it’s important to promote the regional areas of the UK in your films?
Mike: Yeah, absolutely.
Rafe: That’s something we live and breathe really. There’s so many amazing creators in Nottingham and Mansfield, the Midlands area. We cast a lot of Midlands and Sheffield cast. It’s nice to hear some good old Nottingham accents when you’re on set. We like to champion the idea of the Midlands.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
