iFeatures Flying Blind Selected For Competition At Edinburgh

Flying Blind, the third film to be made under Creative England’s exciting low budget feature film initiative, iFeatures, is to have its world première at this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival.
Billed as a ‘passionate post 9/11 love story’, the film, which premieres on June 24, is shortlisted for the prestigious Michael Powell Award for the Best New British Feature Film.
It is the third to be made under the BBC Films, Matador Pictures and Bristol City Council-backed initiative, which is also supported by Creative Skillset. All three films (which include ghost story In the Dark Half and bittersweet romantic comedy 8 Minutes Idle) are being sold worldwide by Content.
Flying Blind stars Helen McCrory (Hugo, Skyfall, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and soon to open at the National Theatre in Last Of The Haussmans ) as Frankie, a high-flying aerospace engineer whose ordered existence is undone by a passionate love affair with Kahil, a Muslim student twenty years her junior. The multinational cast also includes French-Algerian Najib Oudghiri (Rendition, The Wedding Song) and Kenneth Cranham (Hot Fuzz, Valkyrie).
The film is the hotly anticipated feature debut of young Polish director Kasia Klimkiewicz whose short Hanoi-Warsaw won the European Film Academy’s Best European Short in 2010.
Producer Alison Sterling’s credits include the BAFTA nominated Turning and the screenplay credit is shared by Naomi Wallace (Lawn Dogs, The War Boys), Bruce McLeod (The War Boys), and Bristol-based writer Caroline Harrington.
Following Edinburgh, the film will then screen to buyers at this year’s London UK Film Focus.
Producer Alison Sterling said: “Flying Blind is a British film with an international flavour. Our talented team come from the UK, Poland, France, Sweden and Australia not to mention Scotland, so we feel very privileged to be launching the film at Edinburgh.”
Director Kasia Klimkiewicz said: “I feel really honoured to be launching Flying Blind at Edinburgh. I hope that the film will appeal to audiences from all over the world. I have tried to create a film which addresses universal themes of love and betrayal, in a context which is very much of our times.”
Chris Moll, Executive Producer and Head of Talent at Creative England, added: “In a year when other festivals have been mired in controversy about a lack of female voices, we’re delighted to bring Kasia, Alison, Naomi, Caroline and Helen’s potent collaboration to the newly invigorated Edinburgh International Film Festival.”
www.ifeatures2.co.uk
(GK)