Sigma Films and Zentropa have begun principal photography on Rounding Up Donkeys.

After Andrea Arnold's Red Road, this film is the second project in the Advance Party trilogy. 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).

The cast includes James Cosmo, Brian Pettifer and Martin Compston. Cosmo stars as 64 year-old Alfred Patterson.

Facing a serious, life-threatening illness, he decides to make amends for his past errors and neglect of his family. He seeks out his estranged daughter Jackie and her twelve-year-old child but the more he tries to do the right thing, the more he continues to do wrong. McKinnon has described the film as 'a bittersweet, tragicomic tale of making amends, as well as an arse of things'.

The Advance Party initiative, started by The idea was started by Lars von Trier with Gillian Berrie and Sisse Graum Jorgensen,requires the film-makers to follow a selection of characters and narrative rules established by Thomas Anders Jensen and Lone Scherfig. All the films are set in Scotland. Characters will appear in all three films but may alternate from leading roles to supporting presences.

The first of the trilogy, Red Road, won the Prix Du Jury at Cannes in 2006 as well as attracting universal praise for lead actress Kate Dickie. She returns as Jackie for Rounding Up Donkeys.

The third film in the trilogy was originally set to be directed by Danish filmmaker Mikkel Norgaard although this is currently unconfirmed.

The modestly budgeted Rounding Up Donkeys will shoot for five weeks in and around Glasgow.

Funding has come from the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund, Scottish Screen, Limelight, the Danish Film Institute and the Glasgow Film Office.

Trustis handling international sales.

Topics