Second Advance Party films in Glasgow
by Annika Pham
After Andrea Arnold’s acclaimed Red Road [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Glasgow-based Sigma Films and Denmark’s power house Zentropa are supervising the shooting of Rounding Up Donkeys, the second low budget feature film that is part of their Advance Party trilogy.
In the Advance Party concept – initiated by Lars von Trier, Zentropa’s in-house producer Sisse Graum Jorgensen and Sigma’s Gillian Berrie – first-time filmmakers must follow a selection of characters and narrative rules established by Danish writer/director Thomas Anders Jensen and filmmaker Lone Scherfig. All films are set in Scotland and characters will appear in all three films but may alternate from leading to supporting roles.
Originally entitled Old Dogs, Rounding Up Donkeys marks the feature debut of television and short film director Morag McKinnon and is written by Colin McLaren, her collaborator on the BAFTA-winning short Home (1998). It tells the story of 64-year-old Alfred Patterson (James Cosmo) who decides to make amends for his past errors and neglecting his family when faced with a serious, life-threatening illness. He seeks out his estranged daughter Jackie (Kate Dickie from Red Road) and her 12 year-old child but the more he tries to do the right thing, the more he continues to do wrong.
The first film of the trilogy, Red Road, won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2006.
Rounding Up Donkeys was supported by the UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund, Scottish Screen, Limelight, the Danish Film Institute and the Glasgow Film Office. Trust is handling international sales.
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