The first trailer for The Sink of England, the new World War II satire from BAFTA-nominated writer/director Richard Hawkins (The Theory of Flight, Everything), has been released.
Inspired by the enduring wartime urban legend that during World War II, Winston Churchill’s British government commissioned pornographic films to boost the morale of its soldiers, the film, which premiered in Tallinn, will make its UK debut at the Glasgow Film Festival on March 6.
Set in the Orkney Islands in the summer of 1943, with the Normandy Landings on the horizon and front-line troops finding themselves in an increasingly desperate situation, the film follows a diverse group of characters, each with a unique skill set, who are tasked with a secret mission to produce a pornographic film designed to boost morale ahead of the invasion. As each assignee struggles under the weight of conscience, coercion, and fear, this darkly satirical story examines who draws society’s moral boundaries, who enforces them, and what happens when they are crossed under extreme pressure.
Shot on the principles of Ted Hope’s NonDe movement, the film stars Loni Ancona (The Big Impression, EastEnders) as costume and make-up artist Agnes Dupre; The film stars leading lady Natalie Qualley (Call the Midwife) as Holly Sperling and star Jack Bandeira (The Gold, Andor) as Corporal Evans, co-starring John McCrea. (Olivier Award-winning film “Everyone’s Talking About Jamie”) as Captain Anthony Clune. The cast also includes Ben Bella Boehm (“Better Call Saul”), Oscar Hoppe (“Invisible Light”) and Olly Madigan (“Olive Boy”).
Produced by father-daughter duo Nick and Poppy O’Hagan of Giant Films, Think of England has been described as a “controversial film about cinema itself” that explores how video has “historically tested, challenged and redrawn the boundaries of what audiences want to see”. The film is firmly set in that era, and “sheds light on the systemic misogyny and homophobia of the time, while allowing its unlikely characters to work toward a more tolerant future, and constantly reminding us to question the sensibilities and censorship of all eras, including our own.”
Watch the trailer for “Think of England” below.
