Two Revolution Films in Berlin

by Annika Pham

19/01/2006 - Three years after he won the Golden Bear for In This World, UK filmmaker Michael Winterbottom will be back in force at the Berlinale wearing both his cap of filmmaker with his new controversial docu-drama The Road to Guantanamo screening in official competition, and of executive-producer on Marc Evans’s Snow Cake, which will open the festival on February 9th. Both films are produced by Winterbottom and Andrew Eaton’s production outfit Revolution Films.

the Road To Guantanamo is another politically-charged film based on the so-called Tipton Three’, the three Muslims from the UK who were captures in Afghanistan and then held in Guantanamo Bay prison for two years until they were released without charge. Mixing authentic reports, interviews and elements of fiction, the film was made as a TV drama for Channel 4.

Snow Cake is a UK/Canadian co-production between Revolution Films (who also produced Evans’ Resurrection Man) and Rhombus Media. The film tells the story of a driver (Alan Rickman) who starts a curious but cathartic friendship with Linda (Sigourney Weaver), an eccentric autistic mother and a passionate affair with her neighbour (Carrie-Anne Moss) after an accident involving Linda’s daughter. Funded with the support of the UK Film Council, the film is sold by Fortissimo Film Sales who already closed distribution deals with A Film for the Benelux, Village Roadshow for Greece, Monolith for Poland, Lusomundo for Portugal and Svensk Film for Scandinavia.

Just ahead of his media exposure in Berlin, the prolific Winterbottom who is able to wrap two completely different movies the same year, is currently busy promoting his latest film in the UK: A Cock & Bull Story loosely based on Laurence Sterne’s classic in English literature ‘The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy’ (read the review). The comic take on the making of a film is released tomorrow by Redbus Film Distribution and sold internationally by The Works .