In summer 1943 six disparate
people find themselves on a remote Orkney island tasked with a top-secret
mission: to produce a series of adult films made as part of an experiment in
how to boost the morale of British troops on the front line.
The assembled company includes Corporal Harry Evans (Jack
Bandeira), a former cinema tough guy who answered the nation’s call across
Crete, North Africa and Sicily, and who is now under the shadow of a court
martial; Holly Spurring (Natalie Quarry), an aspiring actress and munitions
worker with 20 screen tests but not a single call-back to her name; and the
Jewish-German movie director Max Meyer (Ben Bela Böhm), who has fled the Nazi
threat, bringing to an end the start of a glittering career directing some of
cinema’s biggest movie stars.
Finding themselves ingloriously thrust together, along with
Ministry of Information officer Captain Clune (John McCrea), costume and makeup
artist Agnes (Ronni Ancona), and young sound apprentice Clifford (Ollie
Maddigan), the group attempt to fulfil their orders. As the shoot progresses
each finds themselves facing their own trauma as boundaries are pushed and the
project begins to unravel…
BAFTA-nominated director Richard Hawkins’ powerful and
award-winning period satire boasts excellent performances throughout, including
breakouts for Quarry, Bandeira and Böhm, and the film deftly touches on the
mental toll of living through wartime and what it means to give everything for
your country.
It's 18-rated but that's just because they are, after all, making soft porn for the troops!
