(Via WireService.ca) “Cast No Shadow tells the story of a boy who yearns to transform into something he is not. A boy who was close to persevering, as so many are, but fell backwards,” says Christian Sparkes, director of the fantasy-drama that opens April 3rd.
The boy at the centre is Jude (Percy Hynes-White) , a 13-year-old living in Newfoundland with his “chronic jailbird” father, no mother, and visions of a cave dwelling troll only he can see. He’s also got a habit of hoarding random objects that he’s painted gold. People say he’s a liar, but his wild imagination is his way of dealing with “the cruel and occasionally sweet realities of his life.”
The film’s screenwriter, Joel Thomas Hynes, is the real-life father of Percy Hynes-White and also plays Jude’s abusive father, Angus. Mary-Colin Chisholm appears as a local senior rumoured to be a witch, who’s nonetheless kind to Jude.
Cast No Shadow was one of eight films selected for Telefilm’s inaugural Micro-Budget Program. It made its debut at the Atlantic Film Festival, where it won Best Atlantic Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Actor (for young Percy) and Best Cinematography. At the Canadian Screen Awards, it was nominated for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction/Production Design (Xavier Georges) and Best Original Score (Jeffrey Morrow).
Sparkes says further: “Whenever a character is beaten down or put in a hole by society, we like to envision their environment as means that can be overcome through hard work, luck, imagination, or all of the above. “When it happens it’s beautiful. When it doesn’t, it’s heartbreaking. And sometimes, as is the case with this film, it’s both.”