The third film (after Backbeat and The Neon Bible) from Scala, the company set up by former Palace chiefs Steve Woolley and Nik Powell, Hollow Reed is a harrowing story of a custody battle that develops between the parents of nine-year-old Oliver (Sam Bold).
Oliver's father, Martyn (Martin Donovan), now lives with another man (Ian Hart). When Oliver arrives one day with a bloody face, he first claims to have been in a fight at school. But it gradually emerges that he is being beaten by Frank (Jason Flemyng), the lover of Martyn's wife, Hannah (Joely Richardson).
When Martyn begins court proceedings, however, he finds that his own lifestyle is as much on trial as Frank. And Oliver's loyalty to his mother and his father, not to mention his fear of Frank, causes him to be pulled in all directions, like the plant of the film's title.
Conceived by top British TV writer Paula Milne, Hollow Reed has been with producer Elizabeth Karlsen since 1988, and reaches the screen as a co-production between Scala, Germany's Senator and Spain's Iberoamericana.
Crucial to the film, says Karlsen, was the location: both cosmopolitan and suburban (the film was actually shot in Bath). 'Angela was keen on the idea of a sort of 'David Lynch' world seen in Blue Velvet,' she observes, 'where, beneath the superficial sheen of normality, lies a disturbing chaos.'
Prod co: Scala Productions/Senator Films/Iberoamericana
Prod: Elisabeth Karlsen
Dir: Angela Pope
Guión (Scr): Paula Milne
Foto (Ph): Remi Adefarasin
Art dir (Prod des): Stuart Walker
Mont (Ed): Sue Wyatt
Ints (Cast): Martin Donovan, Joely Richardson, Ian Hart, Jason Flemyng, Sam Bold
Ventas (Int sales):
Duración (Running time): 106 min
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