IMPERIAL BLUE is an accomplished, creative achievement with a storyline spanning 3 continents.
IMPERIAL BLUE, is the highly original debut feature from UK filmmaker Daniel Moss. Billed as a drama/fantasy/thriller, it is an accomplished, creative achievement with a storyline spanning 3 continents. However, the story is set mainly in Uganda, Africa, and centres around Hugo Winter, an American drug dealer, played with panache and sincerity by Nicolas Fagerberg. A native of Sweden, Fagerberg realised a love of acting in childhood, and studied in the USA, and like a lot of people who travel young, he has a chameleon like feel. This works well for the character of Hugo Winter, who is a drifter, swallowed up by the need to find his spiritual core, but sadly through the medium of drugs. The drugs have taken over, and delusional Winter spends his life lurching from one crisis to another.
However, when a dealer in Mumbai gives him, ‘Bulu,’ to try, a psychotropic drug reported to give the user visions of the future, Winters life is transported to a whole new level. He soon ends up in Uganda, the native country of this rare drug, on a quest to bring the drug to the west. Here he gets embroiled with two sisters. Kisakye, a born-again Christian, is played sensitively by Esther Tebendake and her sister, wayward hard drinking rebel Angela, played with vivacity by Rehema Nanfuka.
The story moves out into the deep countryside, where the Bulu flowers grow. Here in an attempt to buy larger quantities of ‘Bulu’, Winter becomes embroiled in their sibling struggles, that of the local church and culture, and reality, fantasy, the past and the future start to distort and collide.
The IMPERIAL BLUE screenplay penned by David Cecil and Daniel Moss is strong and well developed.
Although shot on a low budget, IMPERIAL BLUE is made with the sort of forethought to production and scheduling that really gives the creative elements a chance to shine, and its main producers, David Cecil, Nicole Lieberman, Semulema Daniel Katenda and Ezequiel Romero are to be commended. The wonderful performances of all the characters are also expertly shot by Ezequiel too, and Africa looks wonderful. Daniel Moss’s direction is strongly attentive and gives the film pace and suspense, as well as a unique vision. The screenplay penned by David Cecil and Daniel Moss is strong and well developed.
This is debut film making at its best and it is hoped that all involved go onto bigger things. Well worth a look on a cold January evening for the warm African sun alone, but IMPERIAL BLUE, also has that rare thing, a meeting of a good concept and great execution. Here craft, thought and effort has matched the vision, and many audiences will benefit. IMPERIAL BLUE, is layered, interesting, entertaining and thought provoking. Enjoy!
IMPERIAL BLUE will be released Digitally in the UK on Monday 18th January and in the US on Monday 15th February 2021.
IMPERIAL BLUE was reviewed by Screenwriter/director Jane Alexandra Foster, who loves indie film and believes strongly in supporting it whatever budget or genre size. IMDB
