Netflix has announced that Stephen Fingleton’s dark humoured thriller Nightride, which premieres at the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival Gala on March 1st, will release on Netflix in the UK and Ireland on March 4th.
Written By Ben Conway, Nightride is a real-time, one shot, thriller set in one single night, on the midnight streets of Belfast. The film places us in the driver's seat with small-time dealer Budge (Moe Dunford) as he tries to pull off one last deal with cash borrowed from a dangerous loan shark (Stephen Rea). When the handover goes catastrophically wrong, Budge finds himself in a race against time to find his missing product and get a new buyer before the loan shark tracks him down.
Nightride is a joyride of a film: funny, fast, tense, and moving. It blends the manic spinning plates tension of Netfilx’s Uncut Gems with the real-time suspense of The Guilty with Jake Gyllenhaal, mixed with the car-bound claustrophobia of Locke, backed by a pumping soundtrack by legendary Belfast DJ and music producer, Phil Kieran.
Directed by BAFTA nominated Stephen Fingleton, Nightride stars Moe Dunford (Budge), Joana Ribeiro (Sofia), Gerard Jordan (Troy), Ciaran Flynn (Scholar) Stephen Rea (Joe), Andrew Simpson (Felix), John Travers (Lefty), Paul Kennedy (Graham), Ellie O’Hanlon (Cuz) and Desmond Eastwoty (Magic Shop) Aaron McCusker (Ringo), and Stephen Fingleton (Beaker).
“To make matters technically interesting, the film was shot in real-time , with Moe actually driving on the streets, as he performed, in a single take,” said Fingleton. “We rehearsed as a crew for one week for eleven hours a day.
“We went through the film in chronological order, breaking the script down into scenes; practiced the bridge between scenes, then rehearsed chunks of the film,” continued Fingleton. “We did a dress rehearsal, took a day off and then shot the film in six takes over six nights. The shoot was fast and we filmed in empty streets during lockdown. We would gather on set around 21:00, turnover by 22:30, and wrap just after midnight.”
“I had modest expectations going into the making of Nightride. There is a myth that the outcome of a film is entirely down to the force of will of the creative team. In fact, there is a strong stochastic element,” the director added. “You can create the conditions for being lucky, but you cannot command its presence. On this film, there were so many instances of true luck, and its counterpart - misfortune averted - I feel I have a lifetime’s luck bundled into one production.”
Nightride was produced by Paul Kennedy for Village Films, Jon Silk for Silk Mass and Céline Dornier for Logical Pictures.
Netflix will release Nightride in the UK and Ireland on March 4th.
