A film made almost entirely in Nailsworth and Stroud is moving from local production to the international festival circuit after winning an award and securing a series of high-profile selections.
Such a Vivid Imagination is a coming-of-age psychological drama produced by Welcome To Hawaii Productions. The film has won the South West Feature Award at the Bath Film Festival, where it will screen on the festival’s opening night on October 16.
Its festival run will continue with a selection for the Bournemouth Film Festival, although organisers have not yet confirmed when that screening will take place. The film has also been nominated at the London Breeze Festival.
International premiere planned for Tallinn
In London, Such a Vivid Imagination will close the festival’s gala night on October 25. It has been given the final screening slot before the awards are handed out.
The film will then make its international premiere at the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn, Estonia, in November. Black Nights is described as one of the world’s major film festivals and is part of a select group with FIAPF-accredited A-list status.
That selection places a Gloucestershire-made production in an international programme after it was created in and around the Stroud area. The film’s route through Bath, Bournemouth, London and Tallinn gives the local project a growing audience beyond the community where it was made.
Story follows a girl searching for answers
Directed by Ina Lüders in her feature debut, the film follows Celia, a girl on the cusp of adolescence whose world begins to fracture after she discovers that her mother is having an affair.
Celia escapes into long summer days with her cousins Kerry and Hannah. During that time, she stumbles upon a body deep in the woods, but the body mysteriously disappears.
She becomes consumed by the need to discover what happened. As Celia pursues the truth, the distinction between witness and suspect begins to blur, while her own grip on reality starts to unravel. The storyline gives the local production a psychological mystery at the centre of its festival campaign.
Local community at the heart of production
The film was mounted entirely in Nailsworth, which is the home of screenwriter David Fedash. Apart from lead actress Sheherazade Farrell, known for A House in Jerusalem, the cast was drawn from the local community.
The local performers include Nancy Breheny and Cherry Walters, along with sisters Victoria Ashcroft and Laura Ashcroft. The Ashcroft sisters are also sisters of Richard Ashcroft, the frontman of The Verve.
Director Ina Lüders said: “With Such a Vivid Imagination, we set out to make a film that was both intimate and unsettling, while creating something meaningful with and for the community that helped bring it to life. Seeing that community spirit carry the film all the way from Nailsworth to a stage like Black Nights is genuinely thrilling – this is what independent filmmaking is all about.”
The Bournemouth screening date remains the only festival detail still to be confirmed in the source material. The Bath, London and Tallinn appearances provide the next stated stages for a film whose production, casting and creative base are closely connected with Nailsworth and the wider Stroud area.
