Sands opens with Carey Mulligan’s comedy ‘The Balad of Wallis Island.
The Sands International Film Festival opened its opening night in St Andrews on Friday, with the debut screening of James Griffiths’s UK-shot comedy The Ballad Of Wallis Island.
After its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, this crowd-pleasing comedic film is now at Sands. Charles (Tim Key), a lottery winner living alone on an island, dreams of bringing his favorite musicians McGwyer Morttimer back together. The bandmates, and his former lovers, accept his invitation to perform a private concert at his Wallis Island home. Charles desperately tries to save his dream gig, but old tensions return.
Griffiths said to the sold-out Sands audience after the screening that filming was almost done in Scotland but production moved over to Wales when Carey Mulligan joined the cast.
Griffiths explained that when they first began working on the script “we thought we would shoot in Scotland. But Carey Mulligan got involved and was pregnant at the time,” Griffiths stated.
She asked if we would consider scouting that area and finding a location to shoot near her family so she could have the support.” She asked us if we could scout that area to find a location near her family, so she would have support.
Griffiths agreed, and his location scout began a walking tour along the “entire Welsh coast path”.
Griffiths said that the National Trust wouldn’t let him have a summer because the beaches were crowded with people. His fortunes changed when he met a woman in a Welsh café.
Griffiths told the Sands audience that he met a farmer at a café and he had said, “I’ve got a beautiful beach.” The Sands audience laughed heartily. Griffiths, his crew and the farmer set up production on a remote beach.
Griffiths describes the shoot as “very fast”. It was difficult to reach and production-wise, it was challenging. We shot the film only in 18 days. We all mucked in, and we were committed to shooting that film because it felt so transformative. “There’s something poetic about the British coastal spaces.”
Griffiths helmed the film from a script by Tom Basden, and Key. Rupert Majendie produced. Sian Clifford, who also stars in Fleabag (Fleabag), is also a part of the cast. Universal UK will release the film on May 30.
Sands will run until the 27th of April this year. This event is one of the most intriguing and unique on the festival calendar. Joe and Anthony Russo founded the festival, which is supported by their AGBO label. Ania Trozebiatowska, a veteran curator and programmer, is the Festival Director. She is assisted by part-time students from the University of St. Andrews who are also partners in the festival with AGBO.
The Russos, along with Trzebiatowska who is adored by the film industry and filmmakers for her work in Poland’s Off Camera Film Festival, and Sundance where she is a full time programmer, give the event an impressive list guests who mix and mingle with local festivalgoers, all within a relaxed atmosphere. Imagine Telluride, but with castles and ruins in place of the mountains. Alan Silvestri was a previous Sands visitor, and he performed a live concert for festival goers. Tom Holland presented a short film he and his brother Harry made, and Steven Soderbergh conducted a rare Q&A with Joe and Anthony Russo.
This year, the opening day of Sands included a symposium focused on industry curation. Kim Yutani was one of the speakers, and she gave a rare insight into her career as Sundance Programming Head. Yutani answered questions about her Sundance programming, the festival’s changing structure, and titles that she missed over the years.
“I’m not sorry for the things that we didn’t show.” Sometimes I see films in release or at other festivals, that we did not see, and wonder, “why didn’t they show that?” Yutani said, “It’s a really great film.” Booksmart was the film I thought of. Why didn’t you let us see that? It’s an excellent film.”
Sands will host this year Q&A sessions featuring Joanna Lumley and casting director Kharmel Cchrane. Edith Bowman, AGBO Chief Creative Officer Angela Russo – Ottstot will moderate a discussion between the Russo Brothers, Frank E. Flowers, and AGBO’s chief creative officer Angela Russo – Otstot.
Tornado, a survival thriller starring Tim Roth, Slow Horses Jack Lowden, and Japanese star Koki is the festival’s closing-night film.
