British Films Receive Funding From National Lottery

'Better Things', the first feature film from British director Duane Hopkins, currently in production, is one of several new projects to have received National Lottery funding from the UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund.
Films supported by the fund include Claudia Solti’s 'That’s for Me!', Bille Eltringham’s 'Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution', Richard Laxton’s 'The Allotment' and Peter Greenaway’s 'Nightwatching'.
Better Things marks the directorial feature debut of short film award-winning writer and director Duane Hopkins who was previously supported by the New Cinema Fund/Film4 short film initiative Cinema Extreme for his short film, 'Love Me or Leave Me Alone'. Hopkins’ script for Better Things also won the MEDIA New Talent Award at Cannes 2004.
Better Things is set in a small, rural community in the Cotswolds and tells the story of a group of young people as they struggle to come to terms with the difficulties of growing up in a world of limited opportunities, whilst their parents and grandparents try to hold their families and their own relationships together. The cast will feature non-professional actors. Support from the UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund for Hopkins’ first feature reflects a commitment to nurturing and developing new British talent in film.
That’s for Me!, Mrs Ratcliffe’s Revolution and The Allotment are all in post-production. That’s For Me! is a first time feature for director Claudia Solti. The film is a mockumentary about a celebrity obsessed but talentless actress and her devoted family.
Mrs Ratcliffe’s Revolution is the third feature from Bille Eltringham, director of 'This Is Not a Love Song'. Set in the 1960s, this comedy follows the fortunes of a Communist family who leave Britain to live out their utopian dream in East Germany.
The Allotment, written by Frank Cottrell Boyce is Richard Laxton’s second film following Life & Lyrics, (which also received funding from the UK Film Council). An asylum seeking family is given an allotment to help rehabilitate their traumatised father. At first they are met with suspicion by the people who have passionately worked the gardens for years, but eventually they are accepted into a diverse community united by their love of making things grow.
Meanwhile Peter Greenaway’s Nightwatching, which has just completed filming on location in Wales and Poland, tells the story behind the circumstances surrounding the creation of Rembrandt’s controversial masterpiece, The Night Watch, the work which allegedly ruined the painter’s career. The painting reveals a number of hidden clues to a world of lust, greed and conspiracy to murder. Nightwatching is part of an extended multimedia project bringing Greenaway’s widely recognised theory behind the Night Watch to life in museums around the world. Martin Freeman stars as Rembrandt, with Eva Birthistle in the role of Saskia Rembrandt’s wife.
(DS)