The director is developing a new project based around the world of illegal asylum seekers

UK director Jim Loach (pictured), whose debut feature Oranges And Sunshine screens at the Rome Film Festival this week, has revealed that his next project will be a Glasgow-set story based around the world of illegal asylum seekers.

In an interview with Screen, the director said Oranges And Sunshine script writer Rona Munro is currently working on the screenplay. The Scottish screenwriter previously collaborated with Jim’s father, the film director Ken Loach, on his 1994 film Ladybird Ladybird.

Oranges And Sunshine producer Camilla Bray, of Sixteen Films, is due to produce the feature, which Loach is hoping will shoot next year.

“It’s something we were working on before Oranges, it came from a cutting we found about a housing estate in Glasgow which was used to house illegal asylum seekers,” said Loach.

“The narrative will be a completely new narrative, but the world will be true, I think that’s the route we wanted to consciously go down, we didn’t want to do another based on true story,” he added. 

Oranges And Sunshine, which stars Emily Watson, tells the true story of the social worker who uncovered the organised deportation of children from the UK to Australia in the 1980s.

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