Leslie Udwin Movies
- 2007
This is not a Love Song director Billie Eltringham returns the the helm to tell this comedic tale of a 1960's-era clan of British communists who choose to leave their beloved Britain to seek out Utopian bliss in East Germany. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Tate, Iain Glen, (more)
- 2002
An adaptation of the 1999 Danish film Den Eneste Ene and set in modern day Newcastle, England, this easygoing urban comedy concerns a recently widowed father attempting to start anew following the death of his spouse. Though he had been having doubts about their relationship and in particular the prospect of adopting six-year-old African orphan Mgala (Angel Thomas), kitchen fitter Neil (Richard Roxburgh) agreed to the adoption shortly before the death of his wife Sharon (Kerry Rolfe). Despite his single parent status, Neil commences to join mate Stan (Michael Hodgson) in boozing it up at the local pub. Gradually growing closer to new client Stevie (Justine Waddell) despite her failing relationship with footballer lout Sonny (Jonathan Cake), the two embark on a tentative relationship driven by their mutual dissatisfaction with their current circumstances. When Stevie discovers that she is pregnant and that Sonny has been seeing other women behind her back, she and Neil find that love has a way of creeping up on you when you least expect it. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Roxburgh, Justine Waddell, (more)
East is East, a fast-moving comedy drama of mixed-race manners, is set in Salford, England in 1970. It centers on the Anglo-Pakistani alliance of the Khan family that is both claustrophobically cohesive and hopelessly dysfunctional. In their over-crowded terrace house, anarchy erupts daily with farcical energy. The Khan children, caught between the traditional dogmatism of their Pakistani father (Om Puri) and laissez-faire attitude of their British mother (Linda Bassett), have a lot of difficulties to follow their dreams of becoming citizens of the modern world. Based on the award-winning stage play by Ayub Khan-Din, East is East had great success in the theatres of London before it was made into a film. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Om Puri, Linda Bassett, (more)
Director Mike Beckham draws on the facts in the case of two 1974 bomb attacks in Birmingham that left twenty-one dead, and six innocent men wrongly convicted. When terrorists bomb two Birmingham pubs, the authorities race to catch the culprits responsible for killing twenty-one unsuspecting civilians. But were the men christened the "Birmingham Six" really the ones responsible for this horrific mass slaughter? In this film, Beckham follows the efforts of World in Action researchers Ian MacBride and Chris Mullin in proving that the "Birmingham Six" only admitted to the bombing under extreme duress, and that the five IRA agents were in fact responsible for the deadly attacks. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Hurt
- 1990
Forgotten Prisoners: The Amnesty Files stars Ron Silver as a lawyer for Amnesty International. Despite governmental indifference, Silver insists upon investigating human rights violations in Turkey. Appalled by the shocking conditions in Turkish prisons, the lawyer dedicates himself to seeing that justice is truly done. The film steadfastly avoids sentimentalizing the issue, or shying away from the more repellant elements of the story. Critical reaction towards this made-for-cable film was split: some found it profoundly moving, others dismissed it as pretentious and self-congratulatory. Forgotten Prisoners first aired November 19, 1990, over the TNT Cable Network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
