Director Greta Bellamacina’s highly original feature debut, HURT BY PARADISE, will be released in UK cinemas on 18th September.
The film, which was shot with the tiny budget of £75,000 and the support of a group of Bellamacina’s friends, stormed into film festivals and was nominated for the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film at the Edinburgh Film Festival and for Best UK Feature Film at Raindance.
It is the story of Celeste, a single mother and aspiring poet, struggling to get her first book published and find her estranged father and the supportive friendship she forms with her older neighbour Stella. Filmed on location in Camden with a majority female crew the film is shot beautifully by Fabio Paleari and Emily Jane Robinson and has echoes of classic London comedy dramas such as Withnail & Iand London Kills Me.
HURT BY PARADISE was nominated for the Michael Powell Award for Best British Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
HURT BY PARADISE is the first film by Sulk Youth the small production company Bellamacina started with her husband the artist Robert Montgomery. Sulk Youth say, “we come to filmmaking from an art background and we want to experiment and take risks. With this film we wanted to see if you could make a feature film with almost no money but maximum creativity.”
Alongside Bellamacina the film stars Tanya Burr in her first cinema role and Sadie Brown, supported by a strong cast of British character actors- Jaime Winstone (Kidulthood), Camilla Rutherford (The Phantom Thread), Veronica Clifford (Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets) and Nicholas Rowe (Young Sherlock).
Bellamacina made her acting debut at the age of 13 in Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire. She is a successful poet, her latest collection Tomorrow’s Woman has just been published by Andrews McMeel internationally.
HURT BY PARADISE is a Sulk Youth Production and will be released in the UK through Miracle Communications and Iheartcinema, with international sales being handled by MoviehouseEntertainment.
Sulk Youth’s second film Venice At Dawn by director Jamie Adams is currently in production.
KEY CAST
Greta Bellamacina
Sadie Brown
Tanya Burr
Jaime Winstone
Camilla Rutherford
Anna Brewster
Veronica Clifford
Jazzy de Lisser
Elisabeth Hopper
Ella Richards
Nicholas Rowe
Jason Thorpe
Tania Wade
Bruno Wizard
