THE UNCERTAIN KINGDOM is an anthology of 20 short films by 20 notable directors. It was compiled thanks to an interesting initiative put together by a team of three creatives. Isabel Freer, (producer) who has previously worked on a number of films in Los Angeles including the wonderful ‘Manchester by the Sea (Dir Kenneth Lonergan). Georgia Goggin, also a producer, who, supported by the BFI and the Sundance Institute, has previously worked on numerous award-winning productions including WE LOVE MOSES (2016). The third and final member of the team is John Jencks, the award-winning producer, writer and director. His credits include ‘The Hippopotamus’ based on a novel of Stephen Fry, ‘The Trust’ (starring Nicholas Cage) and ‘Guns Akimbo’ (starring Daniel Radcliffe).    

The team had the difficult task of choosing 20 films to bring together as a group. They chose works that contributed to a ‘portrait of Britain today’, touching on universal issues within the UK. Given the huge changes that everyone in the world is currently experiencing due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this ‘visionary’ collection of short films is ever more relevant, being inspired by topics such as Brexit, climate change, sexuality, immigration, diversity and #MeToo movement.

One of the films in the anthology is THE LIFE TREE.  In this film, director Paul Frankl delves into magic realism and the mysteries of perception.  A Bolivian migrant works endlessly at a menial cleaning job in a large office where she is totally ignored to the point of rudeness. There, she discovers a healing tree that miraculously helps her son, who is dying from plastic pollution. The lead, Isadora, is played by British actress Diana Bermúdez, who is of Indigenous Colombian heritage. (see more on   https://www.latinolife.co.uk/articles/diana-bermudez-british-colombian-…). Bermudez has a magnetic power on screen, conveying a great deal of emotion with minimal gestures. Her son Tomás is played by the excellent Juan Leonardo Solari. The story is emotional and moving and the use of magic realism is inventive and original.  Bermudez is excellent as the Bolivian cleaner struggling to look after her sick child, while being ill- treated and ignored.

Apart from “THE LIFE TREE”, produced by Amy Binns, that touches on Immigration and Hope, the compilation reveals a multitude of talents from various sources from all over the nation.  There are tales from the Welsh Valleys (Camelot, directed by Alison Hargreaves), Jamaican deportees, (Motherland by Ellen Evans) to ‘Acre Fall Between’ from the desolate wilds of Northern Ireland by Antonio Campbell- Hughes.

Other films in “The Uncertain Kingdom” include IWC Schaffhausen Award- winner Hope Dickson Leach (The Levelling), BIFA winner Carol Salter (Almost Heaven), BAFTA and International Emmy winner Guy Jenkin (Drop the Dead Donkey, Outnumbered) Iggy LDN (Black Boys Don’t Cry). Actors David Proud (Marcella), BAFTA Breakthrough Brit Ray Panthaki (Official Secrets, Collette) and Antonia Campbell-Hughes (Bright Star, Cordelia) have also directed films for the project.

The theatrical launch, initially planned for April 3rd 2020, had to be cancelled, so it was decided to move to an online release on June 1st, through Verve Pictures.   The film will play as two feature-length volumes, available on BFI Player, iTunes, GooglePlay, Amazon Prime Video and Curzon Home Cinema.

The writer, director and editor of THE LIFE TREE, Paul Frankl, has created short films that have been screened all over the world at top festivals.  Descended from immigrants from Germany and the Czech Republic, he admits he has “no Latin connections…  we are all immigrants.” A graduate of Queen Mary’s University where he read Comparative Literature and Film Studies followed by Screenwriting and there he discovered his love of film and magic realism at the same time: “… the course had a very international viewpoint, more so than with only English Literature as we compared Literature from all over the world.”  He never went to Film School and learnt his trade working ‘on the job’ on feature films as a runner and assistant editor till he became a fully- fledged editor, a skill with which he currently earns a living.  

 Paul Frankl

Paul Frankl: -  “The story [for THE LIFE TREE] came from my working in an office where there was a Latin American cleaner who most people ignored. I was thinking of how to make a film that tackled issues about climate change that wasn’t just another disaster movie…! I thought about it for some years and I couldn’t quite work it out, then I thought about the main character and as I have always loved magic realism and knowing there is a long tradition of magic realism in Latin American literature, I was inspired by that, and by directors like Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro Iñárritu. As Isadora was a Latin character, the magic realism element seemed to come together[naturally] and I wanted to explore this in terms of climate change. There are a lot of other issues going on in the film as well.

Diana Bermudez

The basic line is that the tree represents hope, finding hope in Nature and the son’s sickness is representative of the fact that the world itself is sick.  Then he’s disappearing and none of the journalists in the office where she works, for example, ever see him, he’s invisible to them… on the surface, they care about climate change, but actually, they don’t see the real impact it’s having on people in other countries. That’s the main idea, but as well as climate change, it also touches on immigration and deforestation. These issues will all be interlinked in the future as the worse climate change gets, the more climate migration there will be and I think that you can’t separate these issues…”

Frankl was delighted to find DIANA BERMUDEZ for the role of Isadora. She is a beautiful and gifted actor who has recently found herself in demand on the international film circuit.

Frankl: - “Diana is so professional, and so well prepared, I barely had to work with her. She was so ‘in- it’, I felt I just had to give her the freedom and let her do her thing. She was just so good. We had a rehearsal day with her and Leonardo [who plays] the little boy, Tomás.  He’s one of the only Latin Spanish-speaking boy actors in London, so we were really lucky that he was such a good actor and so happy to be involved. He was great and really up for it. It was good that we had that rehearsal as they got to know each other a bit. We played some games to make him feel comfortable with me and with Diana. It must have been a long hard day for him because all of his scenes were shot in one day and there is the make- up! He changes, even in the middle of scenes to having make- up and then not having make -up.   So, we had to re- do the scene with and without make-up, which was repetitive [and tiring] … but he’s happy with it now.”

Paul Frankl is passionate about creating stories that touch on ethical issues.   Deeply influenced by his whole family, who always felt it was something they should do. His mother is a special needs teacher and his father works for charities.  True to form, he is currently working on a new feature film, which is called “SEA CHANGE”.

“… It’s kind of off the back of this short. It’s not the same characters or the same story but it’s set in the future where climate change is worse. It’s a magic realism story about a 14-year old boy who imagines that he has magic powers, because he feels so powerless as everything is so far out of his control.”

There is a richness in short films that is often lost in features. Thanks to the reduced risk factor (in particular financial) short films can have greater artistic and creative freedom.  They can permit the director to have total control over his production so that it reflects his or her vision more completely.  

In ‘THE UNCERTAIN KINGDOM’ the variety is staggering. For instance, you have ‘ Verisimilitude’ directed by David Proud,  that describes the ironical and painful situation where a naturally-disabled actress is tasked with advising an arrogant  star on how to act disabled, or you have “Death Meets Lisolette” by Guy Jenkin, where  the child Lisolette, having seen her neighbours become immortal, finds Death locked up in a barn desperate to negotiate his own freedom.

Sadly, unlike in earlier days, shorts are not automatically screened before features, which has been a great loss to the creative cinematic world as shorts have so few outlets. This successful compilation is addressing this issue with some panache and hopefully we will see more like it in the future as the team is commissioning another twenty films on the topic of the pandemic of Covid-19 in the UK. The filmmakers will have a budget of £10,000. The theatrical launch of THE UNCERTAIN KINGDOM, initially planned for April 3rd 2020, had to be cancelled, so it was decided to move to an online release on June 1st, through Verve Pictures.   The film will play as two feature-length volumes, available on BFI Player, iTunes, GooglePlay, Amazon Prime Video and Curzon Home Cinema.

THE UNCERTAIN KINGDOM will have its ONLINE RELEASE: June 1st 2020 on BFI Player, iTunes, GooglePlay, Amazon Prime Video and Curzon Home Cinema.

 For more info see:  https://theuncertainkingdom.co.uk

Credits for THE LIFE TREE: -

Writer/Director               Paul Frankl

Producer                          Amy Binns

Music                                Daniel Thomas / Freeman

Editor                                Paul Frankl

Camera                            Tasha Back

Isadora                             Diana Bermúdez

Tomás                               Juan Leonardo Solari

Paul Frankl  award- winning short film links: - www.paulfrankl.com

GOLD STAR:       https://vimeo.com/419895401   

ROXANNE :         https://vimeo.com/108730876

THE UNCERTAIN KINGDOM: the 20 films 

• ‘Camelot’ by Alison Hargreaves Re-imagining of the welsh legend of King Arthur told by boys growing up in the welsh valleys
• ‘Acre Fall Between’, by Antonio Campbell- Hughes, a desperate man in Northern Ireland searches for his family fearing for the future.
• ‘Left Coast’; by BIFA winner Carol Salter. Volunteers in NW England hand our food and help for people left behind.
• ‘Verisimilitude’, by David Proud. A disabled actress is tasked with advising an arrogant star how to act disabled.
• ‘WE are not the problem’, by Dominika Ozynska. An immigrant describes that Poles have contributed to the UK.
• ‘Motherland’, by Ellen Evans. Jamaican-born brits deported to Jamaica talk.
• ‘Death Meets Lisolette’, by Guy Jenkin. After her neighbours become immortal, a young girl finds death locked in a barn eager to negotiate his freedom. 
• ‘Stronger is better than Angry’, by IWC Schaffhausen award winner Hope Dickson Leach. A bleeding-nose look at what makes women angry and how they respond.
• ‘Ernie’, by Ray Panthaki. A lonely caretaker seems to connect despite the influences of right- wing propaganda.
• ‘Sucka Punch’, by Iggy LDN. A woman exposes the true motives behind brands on social media.
• ‘Isaac and the Ram’, by Jason Bradbury. A former skinhead bouncer offers a gay homeless lad a place to stay for one night.
• ‘Pavement’: by Jason Wingard. A parable about a woman trying to have a homeless man who is sinking into the pavement.
• ‘British People’ by Lab Ky Mo. The unwanted arrival of her mother and socialist brother threatens a Conservative candidate’s chances at the elections.
• ‘The Conversation’, by Lanre Malaolu. Through dance & dialogue, black people face the task of communicating with their white partners.
• ‘Borrowed from our children’, by Leon OIdstrong.  With vignettes that celebrate love, community protest and joy we are reminded that hope can be reborn in our children.
• ‘The Life Tree’, by Paul Frankl. A Bolivian migrant cleaner seeks hope for her sick son with a healing tree.
• ‘Grit/Oyster’, by Rebecca Lloyd-Evans. The return of the Goddess Astarte triggers an exploration of female sexuality through the fantasies of three women.
• ‘What’s in a Name?’ By Runyararo Mapfumo. Some Brits explore the challenges of having non- Western names.
• ‘Swan’ by Sophie King. When the husband’s success in a citizenship challenge means he will be turned into a swan, his marriage is put under strain.
• ‘Sauna’ by Stroma Cairns. A diverse group of Londoners gather very night in a sauna to talk about community, connection and faith,