A first look at Babak Jalali‘s Billy Nighy-starring feature, A Town in Nova Scotia, has dropped ahead of Paradise City Sales launching worldwide sales at Cannes.
His fifth film after presenting previous works in Locarno (Frontier Blues), Rotterdam (Radio Treams) and the Berlinale (Land), the Iranian director gained international recognition with Sundance’s Fremont.
A Town in Nova Scotia is about a widowed Irish senior, Leon, played by the Love Actually star, who gets a plea from his daughter to join her in Nova Scotia. Instead, he launches a crusade to make his aging Liverpool building safer after news of a tower fire in London. On a mission alongside his neighbor and closest friend, Salah (Makram J Khoury), Leon turns their fellow residents’ quiet lives upside down in what is described as “a warm story of friendsip, stubbornness, and small acts of defiance.”
The photo released Wednesday shows Nighy and Khoury riding a lakeside carousel.
The film was co-written with Carolina Cavalli, who collaborated with Jalali on Fremont. Further creatives include production designer Paulina Rzeszowska, cinematographer Crystel Fournier, costume designer Jessica Schofield, hair and makeup designer Caroline Rose, and casting director Lucy Pardee.
Jalali said his new movie is about community and camaraderie in the latter phase of life, and choosing how and with whom you want to spend that phase. “I’m thrilled to be working with Paradise City Sales again after the wonderful experience I had with the whole team there on my previous film Fremont. I couldn’t wish for a more thoughtful, ambitious, dedicated and kind set of people to take this film out into this big, strange world.”
Executive producers are Kristin Irving for BBC Film, Ama Ampadu for the BFI, Christopher Moll for Liverpool Film Office, Sonny Gill and Peter O’Leary for Hoopsa Films, Naomi Despres and Michèle Marshall for Desmar, Brad Noel and Mariyah Dosani for Calculus. The film was developed with BBC Film, and U.K. distribution will be announced at a later date.
Nighy is represented by Independent Talent Group, UTA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandlebaum Morris Bernstein Trattner Auerbach Hynick Jaime LeVine Sample & Klein and Public Eye Communications. Khoury is represented by Paul Becker. Jalali is represented by Independent Talent Group, CAA and Cinetic.
