ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: ENT3-WAR ZONE
TAPE_NUMBER: EN9935
IN_TIME: 11:17:16
LENGTH: 04:45
SOURCES: APTN/CLIPS COURTESY FILM FOUR
RESTRICTIONS: No re-use/re-sale of film/video clips without clearance, No access Internet
Music/performance rights must be cleared.
FEED:
SCRIPT: xfa THE GRAPES OF ROTH
STORY: WAR ZONE
LOCATION: CANNES
DATE: MAY 1999
British actor GARY OLDMAN made a savage and highly acclaimed directing debut with the gritty, no-holds-barred NIL BY MOUTH. Now his mate and fellow British actor TIM ROTH has made an equally impressive debut behind the camera with a similar tale of working class British family woe.
But while comparisons between THE WAR ZONE and Nil By Mouth are inevitable, Roth's offering is very much its own film.
This sharply observed drama about a working class London family torn apart by incest and parental abuse which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and then at Cannes in May, was regarded at both as one of the more powerful films in otherwise weak festival line-ups.
Like Nil By Mouth, The War Zone is built around a powerful performance from RAY WINSTONE, who plays the abusive father who casts a shadow over the lives of his family.
The movie is told from the point of view of 15 year old Tom (FREDDIE CUNLIFFE), a lad who resents his family's move from urban London to rural Devon. The family is made up of his pregnant mother (TILDA SWINTON), abusive father (Winstone) and his older sister Jessie (LARA BELMONT), who is blossoming into a beautiful young woman.
Lonely and alienated, Tom gradually comes to suspect the dark secret that binds his father and Jessie together. As he moves towards discovering the father's savage abuse of his sister, Tom also gets a sexual education of his own from an older woman (AISLING O'SULLIVAN).
The film, often violent and harrowing, has been acclaimed as an assured directing debut that avoids all the usual pitfalls of a coming-of-age genre movie.
Swinton, once Derek Jarman's muse, has starred in art house movies like ORLANDO and will soon be seen in THE BEACH opposite LEONARDO DICAPRIO. Winstone has starred in several powerful British TV series as well as \"Nil By Mouth\", \"Face\" and \"The Woundings\". Cunliffe and Belmont are newcomers to the screen.
Roth has starred in many films including ROB ROY, for which he got an Oscar nomination, GRIDLOCK and RESERVOIR DOGS.
The film is released in the UK on Friday. For further information contact Film Four in London on 00 44 171 436 9944.
SHOTLIST: SHOWS : CLIP 'WAR ZONE' ; SOT DIRECTOR TIM ROTH ; CLIP TRAILER ; SOT ROTH ; SOT RAY WINSTONE ; CLIP FILM ; SOT ROTH ; CLIP FILM ; SOT ROTH ; CLIP TRAILER?