Lincoln filmmakers head to Italy for Franz

midlandsmovies • January 21, 2021

Midlands Spotlight: University of Lincoln graduates head to Italy


Josh Brown is the writer-director of new film FRANZ which follows a mentally fragile writer staying at a friend’s apartment.


With the writer taking a break to undertake his first novel, he witnesses what he believes to be a murder. But with his mental state and heavy drinking, can he be sure of what he saw?


And so goes the synopsis of this new short drama which has been produced by the filmmaker as part of the Cici Film Festival.


The filmmakers are all University of Lincoln graduates and took their skills from the Midlands to shoot the short entirely on location in Castellemare del Golfo in Sicily.


And although filmed a few years ago, the director had planned to submit his drama to festivals before releasing it online. 


But with the advent of the Covid pandemic, Joshua goes on to explain, “With everything being so up-in-the-air, we're flipping it! We're releasing it online for now, with the hope of a festival run later in the year”.

And the director is hoping an appreciative audience can contribute to its ongoing success.

“Please consider paying as-you-feel for seeing it. All this does is allow us to enter the film into more festivals around the world”. He then adds, “a small band of extremely talented people worked on this, which I'm massively grateful for”.

Franz follows its troubled author protagonist as he leaves rehab to retreat to his friend Pino's luxurious apartment to write a novel, but the director explains that the “peaceful retreat soon turns into a fever dream of drugs, fantasy and paranoia”.

Josh Brown is a director and videographer and an international filmmaker in both fiction and documentary. And spreading wings from the region, Josh has made films in Rome, Vietnam, Sicily & China and last year he produced a short film for the BBC, which he wrote & directed.

He describes Franz as “an exploration of the boundary between fantasy & reality and what happens when the line between the two start to blur. I wanted to make a paranoid, cinematic, location-driven film, which I hope we achieved”.

Watch the film below and support the filmmakers by donating to the film’s festival ambitions via this link: https://paypal.me/pools/c/8wbwHIbj6E

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