GLORIOUS 39

Year: 2009
UK: Momentum Pictures
Cast: Romola Garai, Bill Nighy, Jeremy Northam, Christopher Lee, Julie Christie, Eddie Redmayne, Juno Temple, Jenny Agutter, Hugh Bonneville, Charlie Cox, Corin Redgrave, Toby Redbo, David Tennant, Asier Newman, Tom Goodman-Hill
Director: Stephen Poliakoff
Country: UK
UK: 125 mins
UK Certificate: 12A contains strong language and one gory image
UK Release Date: 20 November 2009 (Limited Release)


Synopsis

"It's not always a good place to go, the past..."

GLORIOUS 39 is a period British thriller, set in London and the idyllic Norfolk countryside just prior to the outbreak of World War II. Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, is at the forefront of the movement to appease Hitler whilst others, with Winston Churchill as their powerful figurehead, believe that war is essential to combat the Nazi threat.

The story is centred around the formidable Keyes family, who are determined to preserve their very traditional, English way of life in the midst of this political uncertainty.

The adopted, eldest sibling Anne (Romala Garai) is a rising young actress in love with Foreign Office official Lawrence. Anne's seemingly perfect, carefree life surrounded by friends and family, begins to dramatically unravel when she stumbles across secret recordings hidden by outside forces in the out-buildings of the family home. Whilst trying to uncover the origin of these recordings, a tangled web of dark secrets begins to unfurl, along with a growing sense of menace and betrayal.

When close friends unexpectedly start to die mysteriously, she realises she in a dangerous situation and as war breaks out, Anne flees to London in an attempt to confirm her growing suspicions of evil at work. To her horror she begins to discover she has been betrayed the true extent to which she has been betrayed, which has devastating repercussions.

A tense psychological thriller, GLORIOUS 39 was shot on location in Norfolk and London for seven weeks. Writer/director Stephen Poliakoff makes his long awaited return to the cinema after an absence of a decade since his previous feature films which include the critically acclaimed and multi-award winning CLOSE MY EYES starring Clive Owen, Saskia Reeves and Alan Rickman. Since then Stephen has written and directed a plethora of BBC television dramas, including GIDEON'S DAUGHTER which won Golden Globes for actors Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt, the PRIX ITALIA winning SHOOTING THE PAST, the multiple EMMY award winning THE LOST PRINCE and most recently the BAFTA winning CAPTURING MARY and BAFTA nominated JOE'S PALACE.