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PRODUCTION UK

Ben Sharrock's Limbo starts shooting in the Outer Hebrides

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- Protagonist Pictures is handling worldwide sales on the feature funded by Film4, Screen Scotland and the BFI

Ben Sharrock's Limbo starts shooting in the Outer Hebrides
Director Ben Sharrock

Limbo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ben Sharrock
film profile
]
 began a five-week shoot on the Uists, in the Outer Hebrides, on 15 October. It is the new feature film by writer-director Ben Sharrock, who picked up the prestigious Michael Powell Award for Best British Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, as well as the Cineuropa Award in Brussels for his debut feature, Pikadero [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ben Sharrock
film profile
]
, which premiered in the San Sebastián Film Festival’s New Directors section in 2015.

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The cast is led by Amir El-Masry as Omar, alongside Vikash Bhai as Farhad, Ola Orebiyi as Wasef and Kwabena Ansah as Abedi. Sidse Babett Knudsen and Kais Nashif (Tel Aviv on Fire [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sameh Zoabi
film profile
]
– Best Actor Award in Orizzonti at the 2018 Venice Film Festival) join them in supporting roles. Limbo will also feature non-professional actors in minor roles and as extras, including refugees who have made their homes across Scotland and locals from the Outer Hebrides.

Limbo is an offbeat observation of refugees waiting to be granted asylum on a fictional remote Scottish island. It focuses on Omar, a young Syrian musician who is burdened by the weight of his grandfather’s oud, which he has carried all the way from his homeland. The idiosyncratic sensibilities of Sharrock’s filmmaking style blend drama with melancholic, absurdist humour.

Director Sharrock lived in Syria during his undergraduate degree in Arabic and Politics the year before the civil war broke out. He then attended Screen Academy Scotland, where he graduated with an MA Distinction in Film Directing, followed by an MFA in Advanced Film Practice.

Limbo is being produced by Irune Gurtubai (Pikadero) for Caravan Cinema alongside Angus Lamont (‘71 [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Yann Demange
film profile
]
 and The Girl with All the Gifts [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) and is being financed by Film4, Screen Scotland and the BFI. The executive producers are Julia Oh for Film4, Ross McKenzie for Screen Scotland, and David Segal-Hamilton and Lizzie Francke for the BFI. Protagonist Pictures will look after the international sales.

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