28/02/2007
DAVID MACKENZIE'S 'HALLAM FOE' IS HAILED AT THE BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL WITH SILVER BEAR AND INDEPENDENT JURY PRIZES
UK film HALLAM FOE was critically acclaimed and awarded 2 prizes at the Berlin Film Festival following its World Premiere. A Silver Bear was awarded to director David Mackenzie in recognition of the film’s musical conception. The score comprises music from Domino Records (The Pastels, Woodbine, Hood, Junior Boys etc) as well as a new song from Scottish band Franz Ferdinand, called “Hallam Foe Dandelion Blow”. The second prize awarded was the Independent Jury Prize from the Guild of the German Art House Cinemas. The film attracted huge international acclaim and won major distribution deals on the back of the first screenings in Berlin, while international press critics called it one of the strongest films in Berlin this year
“An extraordinarily accomplished piece of film-making.” The Scotsman
“A most entertaining comic drama with a star turn by Jamie Bell” Hollywood Reporter
“A superbly tooled rites of passager….Confirms Mackenzie as one of Blighty’s most distinctive talents” Variety
The film features Jamie Bell in his first starring role in a UK film since Billy Elliot and co-stars Sophia Myles (“Tristan + Isolde”, “Thunderbirds”), Claire Forlani (“Meet Joe Black”) and Ciarán Hinds (“Munich”). It is a magical story of redemptive love, loss and life on the rooftops of Edinburgh. Young Hallam is almost over the sudden death of his mother when he begins to suspect that his beautiful step-mother may have had a hand in her death. Fleeing his family for Edinburgh, he lives on the rooftops of the Capital, where his new-found obsession with voyeurism takes a dangerous turn as he falls in love with a girl who happens to look just like his mother…
HALLAM FOE is director David Mackenzie’s fourth feature film, following the erotic thriller “Asylum” for which its star, Natasha Richardson, won the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress; “Young Adam”, starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Mortimer which won a host of awards including four Scottish BAFTAs; and the tense thriller “The Last Great Wilderness”. HALLAM FOE is produced by Gillian Berrie, written by Ed Whitmore and David Mackenzie, based on the novel by Peter Jinks, and executive produced by Matthew Justice. It was filmed on location in Edinburgh and Peeblesshire and in studios in Glasgow.
HALLAM FOE is produced by Sigma Films and Lunar Films, and financed by Film Four, Scottish Screen, Glasgow Film Finance Ltd. and Ingenious Film Partners. Buena Vista Int. (UK) will distribute the film in the UK later this year.
David Jensen Photography:
https://www.davidjensen.co.uk/
