Midlands Spotlight – Penny Andrea and Cold Blow Lane

midlandsmovies • September 3, 2020
Midlands Spotlight – Penny Andrea and Cold Blow Lane

New experimental art feature, Cold Blow Lane is written and directed by Birmingham artist and filmmaker Penny Andrea. 

The film stars Susan Lynch (Ready Player One, Killing Eve) and tells the story of the romantic and professional trials of Mary Henry - a cog in the machine of a London based crime syndicate, presided over by sinister pragmatist The Mademoiselle.

Produced by Swamp Light Productions in association with Blue Shadows Films, the film has already screened at Working Title Film Festival in Vicenza at the end of last year and will screen in the UK later this year.

Penny Andrea herself is an artist and filmmaker from Birmingham who studied Fine Art at Oxford University and de Ateliers in Amsterdam. And her own video installations were shown in group exhibitions throughout Europe.

“Written just before the Brexit referendum exploded passive aggressive media rhetoric into all out chaos, the film’s completion coincides with a zenith of confusion and anxiety that vote set into motion” explains Penny in her director statement.

“Our characters are battling against the enormity of the city, looking for agency and to make their mark. Each has their tactic: in the case of Mr. X, it is competing for any victory going, however miniscule. In the case of The Mademoiselle, selling public sculptures for scrap metal and replacing them with devotional monuments to her beloved Assistant Pam. In the case of Pam, seducing and controlling people, selling them if necessary too”.


With elements of neo-noir and mystery, Cold Blow Lane is described as a narrative film that meets art piece and also stars another local actor, Birmingham-born Adam El Hagar (who has featured in Peaky Blinders and Catherine the Great. The film’s producer, Lorna Nickson Brown is also a local filmmaker and hails from Cotteridge, Birmingham.

“However, our main character – Mary Henry - is named after a ghost, and chooses passivity as a means of survival, disappearing into crowds and around corners, flight rather than fight. It’s a successful tactic until she’s baited into going toe to toe with Pam.


“There’s a lot of noise in ‘Cold Blow Lane’, a lot of dead ends, farcical noir subplots, creeps in basements and a nun on a bicycle. There’s a lot of places and faces that blur in and out of meaning, a lot of distractions. I hope the audience can look through them, see the predicaments, wonder how we can turn a new leaf”.


Follow the progress of the production on the links and watch the full trailer below:


IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6576114/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt


Official website: https://coldblowlanemovie.com

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