Lawless Heart

Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger’s film takes place in a small town on the Essex coast after a funeral. The man who has died is Stuart, a much-loved restaurant owner. The film tells the same few days three times over, each from a different character’s point of view: Stuart’s partner, his brother-in-law and a friend who has been away for years each take the centre in turn, and behaviour that made no sense in the first section looks entirely different by the third. The structure was taken from a film by Eric Rohmer. Bill Nighy, Tom Hollander and Douglas Henshall are in it, and it won the screenplay prize at the British Independent Film Awards.