Film / News
Cheer yourself up with a locally made, award-winning Lynchian Brexit film
Yes, Brexit’s all turned to shit (no surprise there), so Bristol-based filmmakers Varun Raman and Tom Hancock have chosen to mark this momentous occasion by making their award-winning 17-minute short Transmission available to watch online.
“Welcome To Britannia. Together We Stand Alone,” runs the shout line for what the duo describe as a Lynchian Brexit film. It’s something of a sensory overload, set in a near-future dystopian Britain, now called Britannia, in which the traumatised Leonard is tormented in a bunker by the sinister Dr. Sam.
“Transmission was written during the height of the refugee crisis as a warning against the anticipated rise in British nationalism, which had been catalyzed by financial austerity and growing hysteria surrounding terrorism,” elaborates their directors’ statement. “We suspected people would sacrifice their freedoms on the basis of rousing narratives rather than facts. It’s easier to blame sections of society than to hold the elite accountable.”
At first, they feared that viewers would struggle to swallow the alarming storyline. Then came Brexit and Donald Trump: “We’re just over a decade away from the centenary of the Great Depression, and the events that ensued culminating in the Second World War. Once again, the cyclical nature of history and people’s short memories are demonstrating themselves to be a dangerous and potent mix. Transmission no longer feels like a stretch for audiences to believe.”
The film was shot on glorious 35mm, making extensive use of interiors beneath the Colston Hall, in the great tradition of Sherlock and Poldark. Exteriors were shot in Plymouth and at Burrator Reservoir on Dartmoor.
Following its premiere at the 2017 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal back in July 2017, Transmission has toured this international film festival circuit, where it has picked up multiple awards, including Best Local Film at the fabulously named Drunken Film Festival.
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