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Ragù

by Anna Elena Pepe

Direction
Anna Elena Pepe
Production
BRIDGE WAY FILMS
Authors - Screenwriters
Anna Elena Pepe
Kind
Dramedy
Location
Scarborough (UK) /Monopoli (Italy)

A wannabe actress from Puglia relocates to Scarborough after a heartbreak, and with her amateur theatre company of misfits and immigrants enters a competition against the local British troupe.

Alessia, a wannabe-actress turned teacher from an Italian fishing town, gives up on her Shakespearean dreams for love — until she discovers her fiancé is cheating, something everyone in town, even the local butcher, knew. Once Alessia finally realizes her romance is a sham, she decides to move and lands a ‘semi-legal’ job as an au-pair in …“sunny” Scarborough, Yorkshire. Despite her age, lack of references, and unclear immigration status in a post-Brexit Britan, she tries to join a local amateur theatre company. Of course she is immediately rejected by the award-winning, veeeeery prestigious and veeeeery traditional YORKSHIRE THESPIANS, because of her … erm..foreign accent. Undeterred she decides to form a company of her own. The task is daunting, but thanks to her amazing “Spaghetti Al Ragù”, she manages to win over the hearts, or rather the bellies, of an unconventional crowd of misfits and immigrants who join her company in exchange for regular pasta. The newly founded troupe, THE SCARBOROUGH PLAYERS, goes head-to-head with THE YORKSHIRE THESPIANS in a Shakespeare-Themed Theatrical Competition. Meanwhile, Alessia's tourist visa expiration looms: can she stay?

Anna Elena Pepe

Anna Elena Pepe is a British-Italian director, screenwriter and actress who has been awarded a Green Card for Special Talent to work in the US. She studied Filmmaking at the Raindance Film Institute in London, comedy writing at the Groundlings in Los Angeles and Acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She wrote and directed the short film Miss Agata, a dramedy about a woman who has PTSD after domestic abuse, that has reached many festivals worldwide collecting numerous awards such as the Starlight International Cinema Award at the Venice Film Festival 2023. She wrote and directed the TV Series “Totò e Daiana”, a sketch comedy about Italians abroad, that after winning awards has been acquired by the Amazon Prime Official Catalogue as Italian Episodes Series 3. Anna has several projects in development in the UK, Italy and the US. As an actress, Anna has worked with Award Winning directors as Daniel Percival (BAFTA), Pupi Avati (David) and Richard Blashard (Emmy).

BRIDGE WAY FILMS

Director & Founder of Bridge Way Ltd, Chris is a BAFTA winning, Oscar nominated producer and alumni of the prestigious National Film and Television School, ACE Producers, Screen Yorkshire Flex, Berlinale Talents and Cannes Producer Network. His BAFTA winning animation, “The Bigger Picture”, along with his live action short, “How I Didn’t Become A Piano Player”, racked up over 250 festival screenings and 100 awards between them. In 2017, Bridge Way Films was one of 22 to secure slate financing, through the BFI Vision Award 3. In 2018 the company co-produced Nathalie Biancheri’s debut feature, “Nocturnal”, and went on to produce animated feature, “Absolute Denial” (Dir: Ryan Braund), which was selected for competition at Annecy 2021 and was picked up by SC Films for sales. The companies BFI backed European co-production, “Scale” had its world premiere at Semaine De La Critique at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and has continue to succeed at festivals across the world.

Anna Elena Pepe

BRIDGE WAY FILMS

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