Following a debut at the Sundance Film Festival back in January, and forthcoming bows at both Venice and Toronto, Lionsgate has released a new UK trailer for Living. Bill Nighy leads the cast of this superb film, which is a re-imagining of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru. The film is directed by Oliver Hermanus (Moffie, The Endless River) from a script by Kazuo Ishiguro (author of the novels The Remains of The Day and Never Let Me Go).
The film is the story of an ordinary man, reduced by years of oppressive office routine to a shadow existence, who at the eleventh hour makes a supreme effort to turn his dull life into something wonderful – into one he can say has been lived to the full.
Here’s the full synopsis:
1953. A London shattered by WWII is still recovering. Williams (Bill Nighy), a veteran civil servant, is an impotent cog within the city’s bureaucracy as it struggles to rebuild. Buried under paperwork at the office, lonely at home, his life has long felt empty and meaningless. Then a shattering medical diagnosis forces him to take stock – and to try and grasp fulfilment before it goes beyond reach.
At a seaside resort, chaperoned by a local decadent (Tom Burke), he flirts with hedonism before rejecting it as his solution. Back in London, he finds himself drawn to the natural vitality of Margaret (Aimee Lou Wood), a young woman who once worked under his supervision and is now determined to spread her wings. Then one evening he is struck by a revelation – one as simple as it is profound – and with a new energy, and the help of Peter (Alex Sharp), an idealistic new recruit to his department, he sets about creating a legacy for the next generation.
I love this film and cannot wait for audiences to see it later this year. Expect big things from this come awards season, too.
Here’s the new trailer.
