A Newcastle scriptwriter has won a coveted international award for Best European Film. Martin Herron, 49, only started writing a decade ago after a varied career spent working in photography, filming and even driving buses.
Martin won the award for his newest work, Irina Palm, which stars 60s pop star Marianne Faithfull. The film beat off competition from Elizabeth The Golden Age and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly to win the prize for Best European Film at the David di Donatello awards, which is the Italian equivalent of the Oscars.
The story of Irina Palm is based around 50-year-old widow Maggie, who is played by Marianne Faithfull. Maggie is desperate to find money to pay for life-saving treatment for her dying grandson. As a result, she ends up working as a sex worker in Soho and takes on the pseudonym, Irina Palm.
Martin believes that the film will strike a chord with most parents, as it questions how far people will go to protect their own children. Martin, who has no children of his own, said: “It’s a powerful question. Because of the delicate nature of the subject of the film, I thought it would be difficult telling my mother about it. But she said to me ‘mothers will do a lot more than that for their children’. And I thought then – the film will work.”
Martin gave the character of Maggie roots in the North East and he believes this has an enormous impact on her spirit. He said: “She has this indomitable quality like many women in the North East.” Indeed, even though Irina Palm is set far from Newcastle, Martin still sought inspiration from the North East when writing the script. He said: “There’s a scene in the film based on a shop I used to know when I was a kid. There was a shopkeeper and lots of gossipy old women in there, which was part of it.”
Martin had always wanted to write film scripts, and first tasted success with School for Seduction in 2004. The film starred British actress Kelly Brook as a beautiful Italian temptress who sets up the Academy of Seductive Arts in Newcastle.
Irina Palm, co-produced by Newcastle-based Ipso Facto, will be released at UK cinemas on June 21. It has already received a successful release in the USA, France and Belgium.
Source:
IC Newcastle