Midlands Spotlight - The Forgotten Soldier
Midlands Spotlight - The Forgotten Soldier
A new film inspired by true events comes courtesy of West Midlands filmmaker Neil Paul which explores the story of a soldier from a Sikh background who fought in World War I.
‘The Forgotten Soldier’ is very Midlands-focused with the team being from the region as well as the real-life Punjab solider himself who eventually settled in Birmingham after the conflict.
Having studied drama in Birmingham, London and Mumbai, director/actor Neil Paul has appeared in Doctors and the film was originally inspired by a statue erected in the Smethwick area.
“In 2018 a 10ft bronze statue of a Sikh soldier was commissioned and unveiled in Smethwick to remember the South Asian soldiers – known as Sepoys – that fell in the Great War, marking 100 years since the conflict ended”, Neil explains.
He adds, “It was a proud and historic day for the Black Country, as this was the UK’s first full statue of a South Asian First World War soldier”.
But after an act of vandalism on the statue, Neil decided to take a further look into the historical background and developed a story for his short film.
“I thought it would be a great time to share this commonwealth story that’s connected to the Midlands. My ancestors – the soldiers from the Indian sub-continents – made sacrifices that are not always spoken about. So in this movie I thought I’d pay homage to those servicemen through this movie.”
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The story focuses on war veteran Aatma Singh and local Councillor Bhupinder Gakhal added “I personally think this film is going to raise the profile of all those brave men who gave up their freedom so we could enjoy ours”.
The film now comes off the back of a successful screening as part of the Wolverhampton Film Festival, the city’s first ever celebration of film. After being shown at the city’s Light House Cinema, Neil is now taking the film to festivals around the UK and abroad. Currently they are semi-finalists in the San Francisco Film Festival and recently won an award at the Paris International Short Film Festival.
Finally, Neil adds, “It’s a short film so my aim is to see if I can generate enough interest to find a production company that would like to develop it into a full feature”.
Filmed around Wolverhampton and Birmingham, The Forgotten Soldier was shot by Gurjant Singh, also from Wolverhampton, and features Gurdev Singh as Aatma Singh and the director himself as Sunny Singh.
Neil has also spoken to the BBC on the We Are West Midlands with Qasa Alom show which is now available to stream (listen here)
For the latest updates on the film's progress, news and release schedule, follow the film and the director on social media at these links:
https://twitter.com/NeilPaul01
