Ash under The Mountain Lookbook

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ASH UNDER THE MOUNTAIN A fairy tale for dark times written by Lara Barbier directed by Ryan Andrew Hooper

LOGLINE

Wales, 1919: When her best friend vanishes on a mountain, GEORGIA (10) must journey into the Underworld to find her, discovering the dark truth of humanity and an impending disaster threatening her entire village.

BUDGET £15 million

GENRE

Dark fantasy horror

THEMES

Loss, friendship, environmental destruction, pandemic, fanatacism

SYNOPSIS “Otherworld” ANNWN. There she discovers a mystical Yew Tree which can predict the deaths of others, and reveals that Georgia’s best friend MILA (10) - who is sick from an unknown disease - will soon die. Georgia also meets a PWCA who warns that her village is destroying their magical realm with pollution from their Mines – either they must stop or face an unknown disaster. Georgia strikes a deal with the Pwca, if he will help her prevent Mila’s death, she will try and stop The Mine. The Pwca says she must take on three dangerous tasks in the Otherworld to save her friend. In the human world Georgia must face down the selfish Mine Owner, and his corrupt Priest who are intent on keeping The Mine running at any cost – to human or environment. Can Georgia battle mythical and man-made horrors to save her friend, her village and Annwn?

GEORGIA Orphaned by both the flu and WWI, Georgia lives with her grandfather, David. She has been aged unnaturally by grief and is ostracised by the town after the disappearance of Mila. Georgia is self-sufficient, smart, and kind. She is not willing to lose another person in her life and will fight against anything to prevent that happening. A problem solver but also someone who can get lost in her own head, dreaming of a different life.

DAVID Well-liked and popular in the town, David is a widower. He is devoted to Georgia and worries about the toll the world has already taken on her. An amateur inventor, he enjoys fixing things that are broken, something most of the town has taken advantage of at some point.

Quietly spoken, he’s economical in everything that he does

VINCE An orphan, after his father died, and his mother disowned him He is of Italian heritage Bullied as a child for being different, he taught himself to read and devoured philosophy, ethics, and religious texts.

His philosophy evolved over time, helped him become successful in business but skewed his outlook on life. He runs an orphanage but has a dark secret about what happens to the children who go there. Believes absolution from the Priest wipes away his sins as he seeks the greatest good for the greatest number of people, at any cost.

AGATHA Once, the loveliest and most hopeful girl in the village, now broken by life’s hardships. She and VINCE were young sweethearts until he chose his ambitions over love - before she had time to tell him she was pregnant. Facing an out-of wedlock pregnancy, Agatha chose survival, and married MADOC a local miner. Tragically, Madoc was killed in WWI, leaving Agatha and Mila to survive on a pitiful miner’s pension. Worse, after the 1918 Flu Pandemic, Mila has remained sick, and now Agatha watches her beloved daughter slip slowly away. She is desperate to find a cure, even as she has lost all hope of one.

FATHER PRICE A greedy, self-serving Catholic Priest who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. In a Pandemic, the man who holds the keys to health is King. Father Price creates the story of Holy Well and its curative powers to cement his hold over the villagers. He even starts to believe his own story! This means he has a stake in ensuring The Mine remains open and profitable, which leads him to help cover up all manner of crimes by Vince. He believes his actions are ordained by God. His is a Holy War, ensuring this one outpost of Catholicism in a sea of Protestantism remains a success. But Protestantism is the least of his worries…amongst The Village is a stubborn belief and clinging to the “Old Ways.” He worries this corruption is being directly encouraged by certain members of his congregation: DAVID, CONSTANCE…and GEORGIA.

CONSTANCE The Village herb woman/ hedge witch plus midwife who claims to serve her village, but enjoys their fear a bit too much. A link back to the Old Gods and pre- Christian beliefs of Wales. Constance’s herb-lore is sound, but she’s not altruistic: She and The Priest are similar in ambition as well as natural enemies, fighting for the minds, souls and bodies of The Village. Constance enjoys creating a persona of mystique, ensuring her arcane knowledge is viewed with reverence and terror. As well as herblore, she dabbles in palm readings and claims to have fore-sight, which The Villagers put great stock in. She dresses almost entirely in veils, hiding her face and body from sight to foster further intrigue.

CREATURES Pwca concept

Pwca concept

CREATURES

Lord Arawn concept

COMPARABLES

TONE

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS RYAN ANDREW HOOPER Director

After making a number of shorts including BFI-funded AMBITION and BBC-broadcast THE SHIRT, Ryan shot his BIFA-longlisted debut feature THE TOLL, funded by Ffilm Cymru Wales and the BFI and released in 2021. Investing in Ryan’s talent, Ffilm Cymru have funded development of two more features to which Ryan is attached as director. In 2023, Ryan had a TV show idea, Square & Compass, optioned by ITV Studios

LARA BARBIER Writer

Lara is currently taking part in the C4 Writer’s Scheme West and South West in collaboration with BFI Network and was one of BBC Writersroom Cornish Voices. She wrote an episode for BBC Radio’s series The A-Z of Things, a sonically innovative drama series pairing writers and sound designers. She has also written an original pilot about Jackie Moggridge, Spitfire expert and pioneer and has an original series idea in development with Red Planet. Previous projects include co-writing a feature-length adaptation of a German language YA novel for Bavaria Fiction and an SVOD platform and participating in writer’s room for ALIEN8ED led by Simon J. Ashford, produced by Phillippa Giles with funding from BFI. Lara was selected as one of eight residents on the CanneSeries Institute, a 5-week writers residency run by University of Côte d’Azur and Serial Eyes in partnership with Vivendi/Canal+ Group International. Her project was selected as the winner.

RICHEY BECKETT Creature Design

Richey Beckett is a pen and ink illustrator based in rural Wales. He has lent his intricately detailed linework to record covers for some of the world’s biggest bands. Drawing inspiration from biblical and natural history illustratorsHe has created movie posters and official artwork for Jim Henson’s “Labyrinth,” HBO’s “Game Of Thrones,” Sam Raimi’s “Army Of Darkness,” John Boorman’s “Zardoz,” AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” Robin Hardy’s “The Wicker Man,” and David Robert Mitchell’s “It Follows.”

Gwrach with a tusked skull mask

Portal to Annwn

DIRECTOR STATEMENT The Ash Under the Mountain is about a little girl (GEORGIA) who loves her dying friend (MILA) so much she’s willing to face down terrifying monsters to save her. It takes the form of a mythic odyssey drawing on universal tropes but with a unique Welsh twist.

The child characters of Georgia and Mila represent Hope, Love and Selflessness.

The adult characters such as Agatha, the Mine Owner and Priest, most often represent Despair, Hate and Greed.

This is a Fairytale for the modern age. Although set in 1919, it mirrors today’s global issues explored within a small Welsh mountain village: In Georgia’s world, a virus (The 1918 Flu) has run unchecked and damaged the fabric of society, leaving children vulnerable. A war has left physical and psychological scars on young people (represented by Jack).

Now extremist leaders both in the guise of politics (The magistrate), and religion (The Priest), prey on people’s insecurities, while business capitalists exploit the earth for it’s resources (The Mine owner), heedless of the consequences to us all.

Within this, Georgia is speaking out about the dangers such heedless greed and hate will wreck on both the environment and future generations who will ultimately pay the cost for their elders choices.

This film also explores the connection between land and people: To poison the land, is to poison ourselves, to poison our children - symbolically explored with the slow death of Mila through arsenic vegetables.

Like all Fairytales, this film offers a warning - if we fail to heed the signs nature gives us about what we are doing to our world today - then it is the children of tomorrow who will pay for the consequences: This is illustrated by the horrifying landslide that kills the village children.

The film also touches on the mental and psychological scars hate leaves on the mind: Jack’s shell-shock is the physical embodiment of this, mirroring the mental health issues we see in today’s young adults who are fighting a very different war with hate online.

DIRECTOR VISION

DIRECTOR VISION

LOCATIONS

Arawn

Annwn vs The World Above

The Angelystor