Midnight Screenings 2009 / Mum & Dad / United Kingdom 2008
Lena is a cleaner at Heathrow Airport. She misses the bus after work, but luckily her friend Birdie cheerfully says that Lena can spend the night at her family’s nearby house. Lena hardly suspects that she’s putting herself into mum’s and dad’s psychopathic hands. Although it begins like one of Mike Leigh’s social dramas, the movie quickly degenerates into a gory and perverse game of survival.
A Polish immigrant named Lena is employed as a cleaner at Heathrow Airport. She misses the bus after work, but luckily her friend Birdie cheerfully says that Lena can spend the night at her family’s nearby house. Lena hardly suspects that she’s putting herself into the psychopathic hands of mum and dad, who have created their own world with its own set of rules at the end of the runway. Although it begins like one of Mike Leigh’s social dramas, the movie quickly degenerates into a gory and perverse game of survival in which the initially unsure Lena manages to score points with mum, gaining her attention and perhaps even her trust. Reveling in extremely black humor, this larger-than-life parody skewers the everyday rituals of British family life. The director adds: "I grew up in the shadow of Heathrow Airport.... The sound that you hear in this film is the sound of my childhood.” Mum & Dad was shown on British television over Christmas and created quite a scandal.
85 min / Color, HD CAM
Director Steven Sheil
/ Screenplay Steven Sheil
/ Dir. of Photography Jonathan Bloom
/ Editor Leo Scott
/ Producer Lisa Trnovski
/ Production 2am Films
/ Cast Perry Benson, Dido Miles, Olga Fedori, Ainsley Howerd, Toby Alexander
/ Contact High Point Media Group
www: www.highpointfilms.co.uk
Steven Sheil, a native of London living in Nottingham since 1992, is best known for his cult horror short Cry (2002), shown to accolades at international film festivals in Toronto, Barcelona, and London, as well as at Edinburgh’s Dead by Dawn horror fest. It was also featured on the Atom Films website where it has been downloaded over 100,000 times. Sheil is currently working on World of Pain, which investigates the phenomenon of British wrestling. He has served as cameraman on several films. He wrote and directed Mum & Dad.
High Point Media Group
Suite 16, Deane House Studios, Greenwood Place, NW5 1LB, London
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 20 742 468 70
Fax: +44 20 748 532 81
E-mail: [email protected]
Piers Nightingale
Buyer
First-hand brews throughout the year.
Be among the first to learn about upcoming events and other news. We only send the newsletter when we have something to say.
