“Suffragette” helmer Sarah Gavron is taking on another female-led story. The British filmmaker just kicked off principal photography for a drama about a British-Nigerian girl.
Currently known as “Untitled Girls Film,” the Fable Pictures project has unconventional roots. Its story and characters “have been developed in a unique work-shopping process with non-actors and will show the spirit, joy, and resilience of young women rarely represented in British cinema,” a press release details. The pic will tell the stories of multi-cultural schoolgirls in contemporary London. At the center of the narrative is Olushola Joy Omotoso, a 15-year-old known as Rox to her friends. “Rox’s mother leaves her and her young brother, Emmanuel, to fend for themselves. Determined to avoid being taken into care and to stick with her little brother against all odds, Rox abandons her home and hides around their London neighborhood with the help of her loyal friends,” according to its synopsis.
Theresa Ikoko (“Snatches: Moments from Women’s Lives”) and Claire Wilson (“The Little Drummer Girl”) penned the script.
“I set out wanting to convey what it’s like to be a teenage girl in the rapidly changing world of today,” Gavron said. “The writers, Theresa and Claire, worked with the girls and have created a compelling narrative that captures the visceral experience of growing up in contemporary London.”
The BAFTA winner continued, “The filmmaking team and I have put in place a framework that aims to allow for the film to have a spontaneous, naturalistic feel, and to bottle the exuberance and resilience of our eclectic cast of girls. As a team we wanted to make a film that conveys the intrinsic experience of being a teenage girl in the rapidly changing and uncertain world of today and to explore the emotional power of female friendship. In preparing the film we have worked closely with our cast of girls over an extended period of time. The filmmaking process itself will be structured in a way that we hope will allow us to capture their natural rhythms and spirit.”
Ikoko added, “There are few things as powerful as female friendship. Key to this project has been a special group of young women, many of whom are growing up down the road from where I did in Hackney. I hope these girls give the gift of joy and love to the many young women who will soon see them — and through them, themselves — on screen.”
Overall the crew is 75 percent female, and includes director of photography Hélène Louvart (“Happy as Lazzaro”) and editor Maya Maffioli (“Beast”).
Faye Ward (“Suffragette”) and Ameenah Ayub Allen (“The Selfish Giant”) are producing, the former via Fable Pictures.
The pic is shooting in and around East London.
Gavron’s last feature, 2015’s Carey Mulligan-starrer “Suffragette,” told the story of women fighting for the right to vote in Britain. Her other credits include “Brick Lane,” “Village at the End of the World,” and an ep of “Transparent.”
