Bankside Films has boarded world sales on UK writer-director Thea Gajić’s feature debut, Surviving Earth, ahead of its screening in the Cannes Great 8 showcase, and unleashed a first-look image.
Surviving Earth is based on a true story. A talented harmonica player arrives in the UK in the 1990s after fleeing the conflict in Yugoslavia. He rebuilds his life in Bristol, working as a counsellor and forming a Balkan band with friends from his work. When traumas from his past life start to resurface, his life starts to fracture, with his beloved only daughter the hardest hit.
Cast includes Slavko Sobin, Olive Gray, Stuart Martin, Peter Coonan, Toni Gojanović and Ann Ogbomo.
The UK feature is produced by Aleksandra Bilić of My Accomplice and Sophie Reynolds of Sona Films, and developed and financed by BFI, awarding National Lottery funding, and Film4. Executive producer for BFI is Louise Ortega, and the executive producer for Film4 is Farhana Bhula.
Gajić’s first short film Run won the new talent award at the BFI Future Film Fest and earned her a spot on the Sundance Ignite Fellowship. She said of helming the film: “It’s been a privilege working with my producers and our partners to bring this special story to life. Making this film has changed the way I look at myself and at the people around me. It has allowed me to extend grace further than I thought possible and I only hope it does the same for others.”
Bankside’s Stephen Kelliher added: “We were immediately captivated by Thea’s intensely personal story of reconnection which unfolds with such a unique sense of self and which sings with a cultural specificity so rarely seen on screen. Audiences will revel in the Balkan music scene while bearing witness to the most arresting human story.”
The annual Cannes Great 8 showcase presents new UK feature films from first-and second-time UK filmmakers to international distributors and festival programmers, and takes place with an online screening event on May 9 and at a reception in Cannes on May 16. Features taking part this year include Christopher Andrews’ Bring Them Down, Sean Dunn’s The Fall Of Sir Douglas Weatherford and Marianne Elliott’s The Salt Path.
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