Lapwing

1555, a year after Queen Mary passed the Egyptians Act, making it illegal for gypsies and travellers to live in England, an isolated group of salt farmers arrange illegal passage to Europe for an Indian Gypsy family in hiding. But a love affair between Patience, a mute English girl, and Rumi, the son of the Egyptians, threatens to destroy both communities. As tensions rise, the resentment in the camp becomes palpable until it finally erupts into violence. Shot on location on the Lincolnshire salt marshes, Lapwing has a bleak foreboding presence similar in tone to A Field in England and The Witch.

‘There’s a common misconception that humans living in previous periods of world history experienced life in a different way to us today, that they were less emotionally ‘connected’ or perhaps even less intelligent. This of course is completely untrue. Yes, we have doubtlessly evolved technologically, and the customs and acceptances of people in the past are often removed from those our modern sensibilities might regard as ‘normal’. But we haven’t really evolved a great deal in the last 200,000 years, especially emotionally. Love is love, hate is hate, loss is loss and fear is fear, these things have never, and will never change, and we continue to have the same issues as the intrinsic elements of our existence.’

Philip Stevens, Director