Logline

A young Catholic priest descends into darkness when a violent gang in his neighbourhood forces him to take matters into his own hands.

Story

Father Miguel is a young catholic priest from Spain that is in charge of a small church serving a working-class neighbourhood in modern-day London. He is a man that is deeply troubled with the current deterioration of society and the hate disintegrating the world around him. His hopelessness is amplified when Angela, one of the usual parishioners of his church, informs him about the death of her child by the hand of a white-supremacist gang controlling the neighbourhood. Padre breaks and decides to seek justice himself by standing up to the gang’s violent and racist leader.

Main Characters

Father Miguel – A young catholic priest going through a crisis of faith. The rise of racism in his community pushes him to take god's word into his own hands.

Terry – Fresh out of prison, the young gang leader wants to leave his mark in the community. He is determined to spread his white supremacist agenda amongst the youth and grow his following.

Angela – A mourning mother who is loosing her faith after her son was brutally murdered at the hands of a racist gang.  

Father Lawrence – An experienced catholic priest who gives comfort and counsel to Father Miguel, although he might not seem to be in touch with the current world.

Matthew – Father Miguel’s altar boy who is lured into crime by Terry.

Why Padre?

PADRE is the story of a man who's had enough. A man whose very faith gets tested by the state of the world around him, leading him to take drastic measures to fight for justice.

PADRE is the story of an immigrant in London. A young priest in a church people tend to mock and ridicule more and more. We think it's a shame how, even in the midst of a crisis, most British media tend to erase or stereotype immigrants, reducing them to background-roles. We believe that if we don't start writing stories for ourselves, nobody ever will.

PADRE is a story about faith. There have been brilliant films about faith, such as SILENCE or THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, prooving that the timeless concept of faith is always a source for the most powerful stories.

The current political climate in the UK drives our passion for this project. Father Miguel, an immigrant himself, represents a very relatable type of antihero, someone who is sick of watching his world being destroyed and finally decides to take matters into his own hands. Itʼs a story based on the timeless principle of good vs. evil, the latter embodied by racism and intolerance. 

PADRE tackles current issues, such as immigration, racism, violence and discrimination, all seen through the unusual perspective of a young Catholic immigrant priest in modern-day London.

The visual atmosphere of the film will aim to be a realistic gritty depiction of urban London contrasted with the timeless ethereal visual characteristics of a catholic church. The lighting will aim to be very low-key, focusing on creating beautiful and well-composed shots. The constant yet strategic darkness in the visual proposal of the film will aim to create a sense of depression and hopelessness among viewers, facilitating their identification with Father Miguel's very own feelings.

Budget

Padre’s main costs are paying our actors according to equity standards (£1,500), creating the soundtrack (£700), and getting cast, crew and equipment to various locations (£600).

In order to create Padre’s unique look and feel we need a budget for production design (£350), costume (£350), hair and make-up (£100), and sound (£100).

Less creative but equally necessary costs for Padre’s success are the production insurance (£400), making sure the film goes into festivals (£500), having a contingency for emergencies (£250), and general production consumables like tape,paper and pens (£150).

No matter the department all costs of the production total of £5,000 will serve the purpose of making the best version of Padre possible.

Crew

Director / Screenwriter

José Solórzano Híjar was born in Cuernavaca, Mexico. After high school, he moved to Mexico City to study the BA communication & film at Universidad Iberoamericana. During his undergraduate studies, he participated in a variety of projects like short and feature films, commercials, music videos, etc. His most important work so far was the co-direction of the independent short film “Reoccurring”, which screened at several festivals around the world (2020). In 2017, he received the “Support for young creators” grant, awarded by the National Fund of the Culture and the Arts of the Mexican government, in the category of screenwriting. José is currently pursuing his MA in film directing in London, while simultaneously working as a director, screenwriter and AD on various projects. José considers Padre extremely relevant to the current political climate in the UK, and other countries around the world. Father Miguel, an immigrant himself, represents a very relatable antihero, someone who is sick of watching his world being destroyed and finally decides to take matters into his own hands. For José, it is a story about the pressing issues immigration, violence and discrimination, all seen through the unusual perspective of a young Catholic priest in today's London.

Screenwriter / Actor

Eduardo Arcelus is a Mexican actor and writer based in London. After working as a filmmaker in Mexico City for several years, he moved to the UK to train as an actor at Drama Studio London. His play "He Wanted to be a Bird", in which he also starred, was recently presented as part of the Latin American Season at the Actors Centre. He played Petrell in "Pains of Youth" as part of the Camden Fringe Festival. His recent screen credits include short films “Reoccurring" and “I Had a King”, both produced by Piano Factory Films; feature film "Grave Men” and TV series “A Secret Killer”. Eduardo is currently writing multiple new projects for stage and screen, but “Padre” is the closest to his heart as he poured a lot of his own experiences with discrimination and the Catholic Church into the script.

Producer

Moritz Matzmorr is a Berlin and London based Film & TV producer and writer, currently completing the MA Producing at MetFilm School, London. Having studied Film and TV directing as an undergraduate, he went on to produce, write, and directed a web-series and a feature film. After several freelance jobs, Moritz worked for multiple TV production companies on the editorial side of production. In 2019, he produced and wrote an animated series for a learning platform for the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment. His passion for the moving image is driven by the medium’s ability to allow everyone to walk in someone else’s shoes – something he strongly believes is desperately needed today, in times when xenophobia and racism are on the rise again. ‘Padre’s’ message of standing up against racist hate is needed now more than ever!     

Cinematographer

Over the last decade, Toby Elwes has shot with a variety of aspiring directors and creatives. He garnered millions of views and MTV airtime by shooting several commercially successful music videos for artists such as Jakwob and Mr. Hudson.

His work spans narrative shorts screened at the BFI National Film Theatre in 2012, 2014 & 2017 to documentaries, experimental art films and animations. In 2016, his film Her won “Best Experimental Film” at Euroshorts Festival, and enjoyed national cinema screenings. Most recently, he’s found acclaim as an editor on ‘Reoccurring’, a complex project combining the work of crews in London, Rome and Mexico City.

Production Design

Anaïs Soto Das Gupta is from London and currently studying MA Directing at MetFilm School, Ealing. Her background is in Theatre, Art & Design with particular experience in performances incorporating intermediality through film, live-action and installation art inspired by religious icons and archive footage. She studied BA Theatre & Performance at the University of Leeds and has experience of working as a Production Designer for live and filmed performances at Stage@Leeds and Leeds Art Gallery. Anaïs has additional experience as a set and costume designer on short films at MetFilm School. After university, she worked as an Assistant Producer at a Post-Production company and later became a content producer for Arts promotion in Kingston and Richmond. Her connection to ‘Padre’ comes from a passion for the story and the script and in the exciting potential it has to be visually immersive through costume and art design, to involve an audience into the protagonist’s paradoxical mind.

Editor

Gorjan Atanasov is an editor from Skopje, Macedonia – currently based in London for his MA Post-production studies at MetFilm School. He holds a BA from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in the department for Film and TV Editing (2012-2016) at the Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje. During his 4th year of studies, he started working as an assistant editor in a post-production facility named "Trice Films” where he believes he got his ‘second BA’ by working on several short and feature fiction and documentary films. After a year and a half, he continued working as a freelance editor on a variety of projects, both commercial and creative. He has a number of short and feature films behind him, both in the documentary and the fiction world.

The Church