country of production: Poland | language: English | status: feature, in development | production: 2025
SYNOPSIS
Monty (Arlo Carter) is caretaker to his father June who has fallen sick after the disappearance of BABA, their mystical companion. As June’s health worsens, Monty’s resentment for his languishing father grows. His hunting colleague Elma (Małgorzata Apse) invites him to a performance by a bewitching puppeteer (Kamil Dobrowolski) who convinces Monty to give June away and free himself from the burden of caregiving. This act casts Monty into a no-man's-land of shame and leaves him under the rough care of Elma, with BABA's return drawing near.
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CONCEPT TRAILER
Directors: Laurence McManus & Judyta Potocka Cast: Arlo Carter, Małgorzata Apse and Kamil Dobrowolski
The film's rural setting depicts a land of disagreeable nature, a waking bad dream from the countryside. In telling this story, we are stepping into an unclean fairytale of men and women at odds with themselves, lost together and finding closeness in the madness.
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ETHOS
Sustainable production, co-operation with local community and connecting a diverse set of people to independent filmmaking are our key values in the making of BABA.
Production will take place in Podkarpackie, Poland, the region one of our Directors - Judyta Potocka grew up and which has diverse filmic potential throughout. We are working with local filmmakers to have a positive impact on the locations we film in, engaging in promotion and restoration. Aligning ourselves with the Film dla Klimatu (Film for Climate) initiative, re-homing production design where possible to local artistic outfits - as we have achieved with past projects, and reducing waste by keeping a small crew are the cornerstones of our commitment to green film production.
Through this project we are connecting a diverse group of individuals from different backgrounds to the process of film production. We can empower people passionate about artistic work to be involved in its production, contribute to a meaningful process and see the worth of its realisation. The creative team developing BABA are eager to collaborate with NGOs, artists, producing partners and investors who share our values.
Get in touch if you would like to talk with us about this project.
Thank you!/Dziękuje!
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PREVIOUS PROJECT
Production Designer: Andie Scott Screenwriter | Director: Laurence McManus Director of Photography: Judyta Potocka
The Wind and the Whimpering (34', 2023) is an impressionist fiction about anthropomorphic heroes struggling with doubts of humanisation. The film garnered screenings and placements in festivals across Europe and the USA, including a premiere at Prishtina International Film Festival. The project was a case study, both in creative experimentation and the production process; pairing natural environment with clear artifice, reaching the intimacy which breathes between absurd conflict and prioritising sustainable practice all provided the foundations for the development of BABA.
The Wind and the Whimpering partnered with British wildlife charity Froglife early in development to raise money for their cause as the film progressed, and worked with nature trust Horsell Common Preservation Society to ensure mutually beneficial co-operation in protected locations. The entirety of the materials used to build the set for The Wind and the Whimpering were donated to the Aldingbourne Trust to be used in local theatre and the costumes of the characters returned to Flexitron Studios where they were recycled to take life in subsequent productions. The film was released in March 2023 and celebrated Earth Day 2023 with a day of free purchases.
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ABOUT
JUDYTA POTOCKA
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY | DIRECTOR
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY | DIRECTOR
Judyta is a visual artist and filmmaker; her work as a Director of Photography lays mostly in independent narrative productions. Judyta's own experimental works have been published in the international journal Surveillance & Society. She is also an educator, training to become an art therapist, researching ways of looking at filmmaking and use of camera in psychological context.
LAURENCE MCMANUS
SCREENWRITER | DIRECTOR
SCREENWRITER | DIRECTOR
Raised in the New Forest, the strange-hoods and art of rural England were formative in Laurence's growth as a filmmaker. He has written and directed short films, experimental projects for exhibition and online series for the British Comedy Guide. In 2023, he wrote and directed THE WIND AND THE WHIMPERING, a medium-length fiction which screened across Europe and the USA.
ARLO CARTER
MONTY
MONTY
A graduate from the New York Film Academy, Arlo's recent performances include Logan in thriller THE LAST BREATH (2023) and the lead in THE WIND AND THE WHIMPERING (2023). He has recently been cast as Joe in THE PUB (exp. 2025). Arlo is represented by Roger Carey Associates.
MONTY gives in to his shadow and gives June away. He begins the film believing he was born from different soil, far away from the dark creatures he has to live with but in finding his own capabilities, he sees the good in his companions. Monty must fall to his father’s position to know that he’s from the same mud as the rest.
MAŁGORZATA APSE
ELMA
ELMA
Małgorzata is a graduate of the A. Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Białystok. In 2022 she took part in the International Screen Acting Workshop in Film Academy Baden - Württemberg. This year she began her first season as an actress of the Latvian Puppet Theatre, and appeared in MY FREEDOM (Dir. Ilze Kunga) Latvia's candidate for the Academy Award.
ELMA enjoys her work in the woods, snapping necks and skinning hares. It is when Monty falls ill that she finds something else ignite within her, an instinct to care. Taking her turn among others as the maternal figure in Monty’s life, Elma grows to resent her own roughness. Her want for closeness is warped by tragedy and only when seeking to protect Monty does she find her own shadow take over.
KAMIL DOBROWOLSKI
DAFFSKI
DAFFSKI
Trained in the Meisner method, Kamil is a regular cast member featuring in the repertoire of Rzeszów’s Theatre Maska. In 2015, Kamil played Mietek in László Nemes’ Academy Award winning feature SON OF SAUL, and more recently sailor Stanisław Uliczny in the submarine thriller BELOW THE SURFACE (dir. Jacek Bławut) which enjoyed a wide cinematic release in 2022. Kamil is represented by JMC Studio Warsaw.
DAFFSKI is a dastardly figure who has embraced his fall from grace. He worships the beauty of performed moments, whether they be painful or jubilant. His mind has been warped by the adulation of crowds and he reflects this back onto the masses, moving them to the beat of his drum.
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WITHOUT A HEAD / BEZ GŁOWY
An artistic collective based in Kraków, Poland.
BABA will be the second long-form narrative film made by the founders, Judyta Potocka and Laurence McManus, following The Wind and the Whimpering and numerous exhibition and experimental films. Formed organically over a number of years, the Collective unites artistic practice with values of collective development, drawing on the pair's experience in Film and Judyta's work in Theatre and Art Therapy.