(London, UK) – September 3rd, 2019. Sci-Fi short Rueful Warrior introduces British writer-director Mark Owen as a rising filmmaker of action cinema. This 15-minute short also brings strong women to the front of the fighting arena in a very action-packed futuristic thriller.
“My vision in this film is focussed on proving that women can fight – not only fight, but match up against their male opponents. I wanted that to be very evident and the split gender reflects that,” says Mark Owen. “Although opportunities for women in action roles are still limited, things are slowly moving in the right direction,” he adds.
Rueful Warrior tells the story of Yalalia, an alien soldier who finds herself caught up in a conflict of moral and physical standings with a group of soldiers from Earth. When she comes back to the planet to collect water for the survival of her alien nation, her integrity is tested to the limit as she desperately attempts to maintain peace at all costs.
OFFICIAL TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrHudjXjOeM
Lead actress Michelle Fahrenheim says: “I worked with Mark Owen on one of his first projects and ‘Rueful Warrior’ came up in a conversation as a film involving lots of fight choreography and fun stunts. The concept sounded really interesting and the role seemed challenging, which is always exciting. I didn’t have much screen fighting experience, which meant Mark had to put a lot of trust in me to play the lead.”
With this story, director Mark Owen’s intention is to demonstrate the futility of war. “I wanted to highlight that in war there are no winners. My job as a filmmaker is to entertain as well as to keep questioning moral integrity and what it is to be human. Ultimately, we have to ask ourselves: What does war achieve?” concludes the filmmaker.
Rueful Warrior has won the ‘Best Sci-Fi Short’ at the Genre Celebration Film Festival, ‘Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi’ at the Under the Stars International Film Festival and ‘Best Sci-Fi’ at the Florence Film Awards. The film has also attracted plaudits for Michelle Fahrenheim winning ‘Best Actress’ at the Indie Film Chart and ‘Best Visual Effects’, also at the Genre Celebration Film Festival.
After a successful first leg of the festival tour, the short is now prepping for the US region, hitting the Show Low Film Festival in Arizona this October.
UPCOMING SCREENINGS
PORTOBELLO FILM FESTIVAL
(September 13th)
Westbank – Thorpe Close, London, UK
SHOW LOW FILM FESTIVAL
(October 17th-20th)
Show Low, Arizona, United States
Followed by a Q&A with writer/director Mark Owen
and actress Michelle Fahrenheim
Rueful Warrior enjoyed a packed crew aiding a wonderful 8-strong cast, led by Michelle Fahrenheim – accompanied by Oliver Park, Claire Cartwright, Christina Forrest, James Ballanger, Georgia Annable, Simon Pengelly and Jordan Dumaurier. Alongside director, Mark Owen, a wonderful crew was on hand, namely, Co-producer Henriette Mercedes-Spiering, cinematographer Paul Dudbridge, fight choreographer Joe Golby, editor Emmalie El Fadli, VFX artist Josh Baker-Mendoza and composer Laura Rossi forming the core team.
About the Director:
Born in suburban London in 1985, Mark has been writing and directing films for over a decade since graduating from the Metropolitan Film School at Ealing Studios in 2006. Mark has a real passion for movies and always strives to create high quality, thought-provoking and relevant content, always putting story and characters above all else. Drawing inspirations from many areas, Mark is constantly attracted to very topical stories or a character that he feels has a strong emotional connection to. He is also head of Belloq Productions film company and anti-sexism campaign Why Should I?. Next on the agenda for Mark is a sci-fi web series Waves, as well as his hopes to make his first feature film Irritant, a tense thriller that evolves around a national news story.
For more information about Rueful Warrior, please visit the following links:
FILM’S WEBSITE: http://www.belloqproductions.com/
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/rueful_warrior/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/RuefulWarrior/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/RuefulWarrior
HASHTAG: #RuefulWarrior
Source: ChicArt Public
