Timbuktu

Synopsis

When Isobel's brother is kidnapped by Algerian rebels, she reunites with their childhood friend Deecy and together they embark on a dark journey of discovery across the Sahara. On accepting an offer of help from a local hustler they become the pawns in his nightmarish game.

TIMBUKTU is a stylish edgy fast-paced road movie directed by award winning Irish director Alan Gilsenan. Starring Eva Birthistle ("Ae Fond Kiss", "Bloody Sunday") and Karl Geary ("Sex & the City", "Hamlet"). TIMBUKTU takes its audience on an odyssey to the edge of civilisation where trusting a stranger can have deadly consequences.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Like many films, TIMBUKTU has had a long gestation. The original inspiration came from a wonderful novel by Paul Freaney. Paul spent a considerable time traveling in North and West Africa and the story had its origins there. When Paul went looking for early feedback the immediate feeling was that it would make a great movie.

The script went through many drafts and even more manifestations with development support from the Irish Film Board/Bord Scannín na hÉireann, who also came through with production money. MR International Film Sales were then approached who immediately came on board with both investment money and the invaluable addition of a international sales agent who believed strongly in the film.

Producer Emma Scott from MR Films says:
"I had known about the project through conversations with the writer Paul Freaney going back a few years and I was very attracted to it from the beginning. The story changed and developed losing and gaining characters and when the script reached my desk in final draft form I was immediately impressed with it. I loved the characters, their combination of boldness and fragility which made them seem so real. When I heard that Alan Gilsenan was attached as director, this made the project all the more appealing."
Producer John McDonnell says:
"With MR on board this gave us the flexibility to shoot the script as written without making too many compromises. We used a service company in Morocco who were terrific as they totally understood the production techniques that we employed and they rowed in behind us with 100% support. The Moroccan crew were wonderful and we became a very tight unit moving huge distances and yet sticking to our schedule. Shooting under these circumstances can be difficult enough, what added an extra air of suspense was the fact that Iraq was invaded two days after we commenced shooting and George Bush declared the war was over the day we wrapped."

Director Alan Gilsenan on TIMBUKTU:
We Irish seem particularly fond of the notion of going away to find ourselves, probably born of the historical impetus toward emigration, or perhaps echoing further back to a tradition of nomadic monks and holy men setting forth in search of a wilderness where they could find God. These spiritual and philosophical echoes are in TIMBUKTU despite the film's violent rock and roll demeanor.
On his travels, TIMBUKTU's writer Paul Freaney absorbed much of the fascinating story of Charles de Foucauld, a decadent sensualist turned ascetic monk who went to the Sahara in search of a kind of mystical negation, and there is something also of him still in the character of Conor. The other factual element that influenced this fictional story was the capture and massacre of seven French Trappist monks in Algeria in 1996. These monks lived in complete harmony with local Muslims until their abduction by the GIA (Armed Islamic Group). Their severed heads were found later hung from a tree outside Tibhirine. It would be demeaning to that tragic tale to claim it as the basis for the massacre at the start of our film but certainly it's influence is clearly there, and it reminds us that the violence of war-torn Algeria is no Western film-maker's fantasy. These things do actually happen. But we must also remember that the passionate violence of the GIA no more reflects the majority of Algerians than the Omagh bombing reflects on the beliefs of most Irish people. But these influences only hover below, or perhaps, more accurately, above the surface of the film. It was and still is, for me at least, a strange maverick beast. A dark trippy film. A road movie of a kind. The journey that most of us have flirted with but never actually had balls to go on. The road to nowhere. 'Fucking off' as the first chapter of the original novel which this film is based on was called.

TIMBUKTU was shot mainly in Southern Morocco, very close to the Algerian border. It is basically the edge of the Sahara where the roads end and camel trails begin. 'Timbuktu 52 days' boasts a sign close to our hotel - by camel that is. We shot for a frantic four weeks during the so-called Iraq War. How ludicrous that conflict seemed over there. The crew was half Irish and half Moroccan, and we benefited considerably from the fact that all foreign production pulled out of Morocco as soon as war was announced. After some demonstrations and riots in Morocco, and some nervousness on the part of our insurers and the Irish Film Board back in Ireland, the shoot went ahead without incident, apart from the usual heat, sandstorms, sunstroke and nefarious stomach ailments. I understand that Morocco prides itself on it's particularly liberal Muslim outlook, but the demonizing of all things Islam in the post 9/11 hysteria seemed so misplaced when contrasted with the courtesy, kindness and warmth which we encountered on a daily basis. Yet despite the real toughness of the physical conditions and the crucifying impossibility of the schedule, we were blessed with a largely happy cast and crew, who could leave any tensions or stress behind them as we relaxed into the warm nights with a cold beer. The fact that we got it done at all is mainly due to the 1st AD Andrew Hegarty. The film was shot on a brand new Panasonic 25P DV system. Unusually, we mostly filmed with three cameras under the guidance of Director of Photography PJ Dillon. PJ has an extraordinary visual sense allied to great commitment and intelligence.

There were other unorthodox things. The presence of the writer on location is usually considered a recipe for disaster but Paul Freaney was able to work in an organic way with the actors, not to mention his vital role as alternative location catering ranging from welcome supplies of the 'Special' (Sardine, chips and olive sandwiches if you're interested) as well as on occasion taking over the hotel kitchen and cooking dinner for the whole crew. The actors reverted to their day job of waitressing, just to show they weren't really prima-donnas.

Crew List

Review

Awards