Barrow-based short film to be shown at Sweden Film Awards

‘The Summer’s Gone’, a short film that was shot in Barrow last summer, will be heading to the Sweden Film Awards after being selected to be shown.

For director and former deputy editor of The Mail Phil Pearson, the movie follows on from his critical hit ‘Blackpool’ and he has always wanted to produce a film in his hometown.

Rob Lloyd plays 'Daniel' in 'The Summer's Gone' (Image: Phil Pearson)

“I’m Barrovian, I lived there until I was 43 and I wanted to go back,” he said.

“I made a film last year called Blackpool which has been in festivals everywhere from the UK to America to Cannes in France.

“Then I wanted to make a film in Barrow because first and foremost, it’s a homage to my mother who died on Christmas Day three years ago. I also wanted to do it in Barrow to highlight the amount of creative people from Barrow.”

Julie Edwards stars as 'Mam' in 'The Summer's Gone' (Image: Phil Pearson)

The cast and crew of the film is mostly made up of people from the town with nine coming from Barrow and the one that isn’t from the town lives with a Barrovian.

“It’s a completely utter Barrow production,” Mr Pearson added.

To add to the cast and crew, ‘The Summer’s Gone’ also features a song by local musician John Byrne and it was edited in Barrow with Director of Photography John Rennie. The film was produced by Kitchen Sink Media in association with John Rennie Creative.

A behind-the-scenes shot of the crew filming (Image: Phil Pearson)

The film focuses on the bond between 'Mam' and her son 'Daniel', played by Julie Edwards and her actual son Rob Lloyd, and Mr Pearson says the 'Mam' is an ‘exaggerated’ version of his own mum.

“It’s about a mother and son living in a remote beach hut and it was filmed at Black Huts,” he said.

“It’s an exaggerated version of my mother. In the film she’s a singer, who’s unfortunately dying and it’s their last time together, so she does one final concert for her son.

“They’re just two unbelievably fantastic performances, it was really moving and the chemistry between them was there. It was just magical to be in the room to be honest. I don’t want to give too much away though because we’re hoping to show it in Barrow in May.”

The cast and crew of 'The Summer's Gone' (Image: Phil Pearson)

As well as Sweden and potentially Barrow itself, Mr Pearson has submitted the film to many other film festivals.

He added: “It’s been accepted into Sweden, which is good, and it’s been submitted to a lot of festivals this year.

“That process has just happened so I’m just waiting to see which ones it gets selected for but it’s a good selection right across the UK and some abroad as well.”