INLAND_Still8

Source: Verve Pictures

‘Inland’

Verve Pictures has acquired UK distribution rights to Inland, a modern folktale starring Mark Rylance which premiered at last year’s BFI London Film Festival.

Verve will release the film in UK cinemas in June 2023. The release is supported by funding from the BFI’s First Feature Distribution Support Scheme.

The film is the feature debut of UK-based director Fridtjof Ryder, with Rory Alexander and Kathryn Hunter starring alongside Rylance.

It explores the fractured identity of a young man after the mysterious disappearance of his mother, as he is guided through the dreamlike rural spaces of rural England.

The film is produced by Henry Richmond, Louis Paine and Ryder, in association with Twenty 20 Media, Fablemaze, Fatcontman, Dva Films, Shakespeare Road and Zebrafish Media. Executive producers are Trudie Styler, Sam Tromans, Ian Dawson, Zak Brilliant, Guy Davies, Matt Cook, Toby Cook, Thomas Atherton, Dougal Mackenzie Smith, Shaun Dingwall and Rylance.

“This film wakes me at night,” said Rylance. “It contains a very old connection to the Green Man rituals of Carnivale, when someone would dress up as the Green Man and emerge from the deep forest to rampage through the town. This version is really scary and powerful, as it should be. There is a beautiful expression of the unconscious energy of nature in man. It reminds me of Eraserhead and Blue Velvet and films I loved but don’t see many of anymore. I am disturbed and excited by it at once.”

“As a filmmaker and a cinephile, Verve’s history stretches far back to films both formative and deeply important to me,” said Ryder. “Working with them is a dream come true.”