We’re in our worst nightmare; a post-Brexit, heightened, cautionary reaction to racism. London, the melting pot of immigrants, is now rigidly divided into ethnic sectors.
We hone in on one oppressive world in particular, the Cypriot sector. This is Cypriot culture intensified. We meet our protagonist at the brink of womanhood; Athena is due to be begin serving as a breeding machine to keep her sector alive. But Athena’s future is turned upside down when her Father passes away, revealing she is a love child and is in-fact half Cypriot, half Egyptian! Athena realizes the risk if she dares to escape and find her biological father, but Athena’s world continues to spiral as she begins to learn there is more to being a woman than babies, eg: orgasms and YouTube. Can Athena spend another day in this oppressive sector?
Alannah is a Cypriot/Egyptian writer/director from North London. Alannah’s passion is creating a more inclusive future on screen for women and woc. She began as an actress starring in comedies such as; People Just Do Nothing, Uncle, Peep Show, Fungus The Bogeyman and Kill Your Friends. After feeling the frustration in the lack of roles for woc she decided to begin writing her own content for herself and her actor friends, and began on the BBC E20 EastEnders writing academy. Since then Alannah has made a short teaser of an original comedy drama called OLIVES, which is now in development with BBC Drama and Leftbank Pictures.
Alannah’s film Taarof ‘a verbal dance’ is currently doing the festival circuit and has already won best female film, best director, best screenplay and best ensemble. It was recently screened at Shorts On Tap’s, Women in Revolt Event for Female Middle Eastern Filmmakers.
Alannah is working on an original revenge series for TV with Channel 4 Drama and Neon Ink Productions (as part of Banjay). She is also working on other exciting and fresh original TV series ideas with BandIt called Bibi The Bubble and Voodoo Bitches with Hera Pictures.
You can watch the trailer for Allanah’s film Taaroff ‘a verbal dance’ on our watch player
Julia Nottingham (Producer)
Julia’s past credits include XY CHELSEA dir: Tim Travers Hawkins (Tribeca 2019), SKATE KITCHEN Dir: Crystal Moselle featuring Jaden Smith (Sundance 2018), KINGDOM OF US Dir: Lucy Cohen (LFF 2017) which won the Greirson Best Doc prize and was nominated for Outstanding Debut at BAFTA 2018, TROPHY (Sundance 2017) Dir: Shaul Schwarz, ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS (Sundance 2016) which won Best Director at the festival and THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS ( SXSW 2014) Dir: Edward Lovelace and James Hall. Currently she has fiction projects in development with Film 4, BBC Films and BFI and non fiction projects with ESPN Films and CNN Films. In 2018 Julia was named by Screen International as a Future Leader. Before setting up Dorothy Street Pictures Julia worked in the film department at Pulse Films (AMERICAN HONEY, 20,000 DAYS ON EARTH) running their feature doc slate.
Ariadne Kotsaki (Producer)
Ariadne is a producing partner at Dorothy Street Pictures working alongside Julia on the fiction slate. She has worked in scripted development for over 8 years at indie companies such as Faliro House (BEFORE MIDNIGHT, ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE) as well as at Fox Searchlight. Most recently she ran the film slate for producer Damian Jones working on films such as ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS: THE MOVIE and story editing period drama GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN. She is attached to produce artist and filmmaker Sophia Al Maria’s debut feature THE MARINA, as well as projects set up with Dorothy St such as a feature from writer and actress Susan Wokoma.
Dorothy Street Pictures is an independent production company founded in 2018 by producer Julia Nottingham.