Golden’s ‘Pelican Blood’ Premieres at Edinburgh | The Irish Film & Television Network

Produced by Ecosse Films ‘Pelican Blood’ showcases breakthrough performances by young leads Harry Treadaway (Fish Tank) and Emma Booth (The Boys are Back) and will be released across cinemas later this year by Icon Entertainment.

Based on the cult novel of the same name by Cris Freddi, ‘Pelican Blood’ is the story of Nikko, played by Treadaway who is charming and funny whilst also obsessive compulsive, dangerous and self-destructive - a pretty unique combination for a bird-spotter. Nikko and his fellow ‘Twitchers’ live by lists. Rare gull, rare warbler, one-off sandpiper which Niko ticks off as he sees them. The thing is, once he reaches 500 ticks, he plans to kill himself. And he’s just ticked number 497….

The reappearance of Nikko’s beautiful but highly volatile ex-girlfriend Stevie, played by Emma Booth, throws his plans into turmoil and turns his life upside down. Can she save him from himself or push him further towards the edge?

With a script by Cris Cole (Mad Dogs) the film is produced by Ecosse Films’ Robert Bernstein and Douglas Rae and Irish producer John McDonnell of Fantastic Films. The director of photography is Darren Tiernan (The Honeymooners) with music by Niall Byrne (Amongst Women) and editing carried out by Camille Brenda (Batman Begins).

In an interview with IFTN late last year director Karl Golden (Belonging to Laura) described the trouble he experienced funding ‘Pelican Blood’ saying: “It was very hard to finance because it is the sort of script that everyone loved but no-one actually wanted to make. (I seem to be drawn to those sort of projects!).” He continued by praising his two leading actors and crew: “There’s two fantastic performances at the heart of the film from Harry Treadaway and an Australian actress called Emma Booth. And my director of photography, Darren Tiernan and composer Niall Byrne and my editor Martin Brinkler and Camille Benda, my costume designer were all involved in both ‘Belonging to Laura’ and ‘Pelican Blood’ so we got to work together essentially back-to-back on the two projects which was great.”

‘Pelican Blood’ will have its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on Thursday June 17th at 6.30pm. For more information and to book tickets visit www.edfilmfest.org.uk

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