Richmond College will serve as the background to a daring short film by a young up and coming British actor.

Heart's Ease is the directorial debut of Jassa Ahluwalia, best known for his roles in Some Girls, Ripper Street, Unforgotten and Peaky Blinders.

The 15-minute short will tell the story of an unlikely school romance between John, a shy teenage outcast, and Anna, the cool new girl recently arrived from America.

At the heart of the film is one of society's biggest, yet barely discussed, social taboos.

Heart's Ease has been given the full backing of Reach Psychology, which has acted as script consultants and will provide cast and crew workshops to ensure psychological accuracy throughout the shoot.

"Heart's Ease started out in my head as a conceptual question about social taboo," said Jassa, who lives in Leicester.  "It's since evolved into a very real and challenging short film!

"As an actor I've had the privilege of working with and learning from some phenomonally talented people and I'm hugely excited to be bringing that experience to the director's chair for the first time."

The film is being produced by Hampton-based GreanTea Productions, in what will be the company's first screen credit.

Last year GreanTea won rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with a sell-out run of Immortal, a play about stranded World War 2 fighter pilots.

Olly Fawcett, founder of GreanTea Productions, said: "Until now, GreanTea has worked primarily in theatre, but it was always the intention to expand into film.
"After meeting Jassa and reading his script, I knew that Heart's Ease was the project we were looking for to make our first step into film.
"We have a fantastic group of actors and  relatives working with us, and I can't wait to take Heart's Ease to film festivals across the world."

Filming for Heart's Ease takes place at Richmond College over three days next week. 

The film is scheduled for release later in 2017, and will be submitted to film festivals around the world.

Article supplied by Olly Fawcett