Neil Maskell, who has many acting credits. “Kill List” “Peaky Blinders,”With this, he makes his feature-directing debut “Klokkenluider,”This film is currently playing at the BFI London Film Festival.
The film is a dark comedy thriller about a government whistleblower who escapes to a remote Belgian cottage with his partner and two eccentric bodyguards.
“‘Klokkenluider’ came out of a combination of circumstances. I was on holiday in East Flanders and the atmosphere of the house we were staying in set off some voices in my head. There were four characters and they were trapped there but it took me a while to work out who they were”Maskell told Variety.
“Around the same time I was feeling dismayed about public apathy regarding our privacy and vulnerability to unseen authority so soon after Edward Snowden’s revelations. His heroism and altruism and bravery seemed to have been wasted on the people he sacrificed his liberty for,”Maskell.
“I was captivated by what he had done, in practical terms as much as ethically. His planning was surgically precise. I wondered what would happen to others with the same sense of decency and motivations, if they didn’t have his knowledge about surveillance capabilities and government security. How would they behave? What kind of half-cocked strategy might they or I devise to release some highly guarded information into public view? What forces could converge to block them?
‘Klokkenluider’ uses those questions as narrative premise but it’s not a work of naturalism or realism at all. It’s attempting to echo many truths at once and be funny,” adds Maskell.
Amit Shah (starring in the film) is the star.“Happy Valley”), Tom Burke (“Strike”Jenna Coleman (“The Sandman”). MarVista Entertainment, Erebus Pictures produce it.
The BFI London Film Festival runs from Oct. 5-16.
Check out the video clip: