BABA
Feature (90 mins approx.), Dir. Judyta Potocka and Laurence McManus
Production: 2024/25 (in development)
Poland, 16:9

BABA, a surreal fantasy-drama feature film, is currently in development to enter production in Podkarpackie, Poland in 2024/25. The project builds on the themes of care, intimacy and absurdism explored in their previous work. It is a fairytale, a waking bad dream from the countryside.
Monty (Arlo Carter) is caretaker to his father June who has fallen sick after the disappearance of Baba, his inhuman companion. With the decline of June’s health grows Monty’s resentment. His hunting colleague Elma (Małgorzata Apse) invites him to a performance by a bewitching puppeteer (Kamil Dobrowolski) who convinces Monty to give June away. This act casts Monty into a no man's land of shame and leaves him under the care of Elma, with his senses failing and Baba's return drawing near.

Cast: Arlo Carter, Kamil Dobrowolski, Małgorzata Apse
Screenwriter: Laurence McManus
Director of Photography: Judyta Potocka
Production Designer: Andie Scott
Producers: Bez Głowy

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THE WIND AND THE WHIMPERING
34 mins, Dir. Laurence McManus
Production: 2021 | Release: 2023
United Kingdom, 16:9

Produced in the south of England during the Covid-19 pandemic, The Wind and the Whimpering is a medium-length impressionist fiction film about monotony, malaise and heroes struggling with doubts of humanisation. 
Confined between man and animal, Toad (Arlo Carter) struggles to understand the justification for his existence. Saturated with the monotony of honest, marshland work, his dormant hungers are awoken and he desperately tries to hold together the fraying edges of his identity.
Cast: Arlo Carter, William Wolfe Hogan & Paul Brodie
Screenwriter: Laurence McManus
Director of Photography: Judyta Potocka
Producers: Jessica Benson & Laurence McManus
Associate Producer: Judyta Potocka
Makeup Designer: Heather Denyer
Production Designer: Andie Scott
SCREENINGS 
         (2022/23)
. Official Selection:14th Prishtina International Film Festival - Prishtina, Kosovo

. Official Selection (Semi-Finalist, Best Film): BIDEODROMO Internacional Experimental Film and Video Festival - Bilbao, Spain

. Official Selection: Crossing the Screen International Film Festival - Eastbourne, UK

. Official Selection: 20th Asheville Fringe Arts Festival - Asheville, N.C, USA

. Official Selection (Winner, Best Fiction Short): Insomnia Film Festival - Helsinki, Finland

. Nowe Forum Filmowe: Paradox Kino - Kraków, Poland

. Official Selection: Cinergo International Film Festival - Athens, Greece
. Official Selection: Festival Angaelica - Pasadena, CA, USA
. Official Selection (Winner, Best Fantasy Film): Retro Avant Garde Film Festival - Venice, Italy
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HOME GNOMES
15 mins, Dir. Ekaterina Saiapina 
Production: 2020 | Release: TBD
United Kingdom, 4:3

Home Gnomes is an absurdist short written by Laurence McManus and directed by Ekaterina Saiapina, a graduation dissertation film for Film Production (BA) at The University of the Creative Arts. 
Repulsed by her outdated garden decorations (Alexander Gordon-Wood, Clare Almond), a home-owner, Belinda (Becky Black) seeks to spice up the place with a fashionable replacement (Benjamin Anthony). Jealously brews between Belinda and her gnomes leading all parties to a violent, tragic end.
Cast: Alexander Gordon-Wood, Clare Almond,
Becky Black & Benjamin Anthony
Screenwriter: Laurence McManus
Director of Photography: Charlie Ditcham
Producers: Jessica Benson & The University for the Creative Arts
Makeup Designer: Suzie Sherbert
Production Designer: Rowan Wolowacz
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