The extraordinary true story of the teenage Arab prince sent to London on a high-stakes diplomatic mission was voted the best feature film at Ambleside’s Inward Eye film festival.
Born a King took the honours after a showing on the final night of the three-day inaugural event, organised by Hopscotch Films at Zeffirellis cinema, and Rydal Mount. The festival was deemed to be a great success and is likely to become an annual event.
Four years in the making, Agustí Villaronga’s Born a King, starring Ed Skrein (Deadpool) and Hermione Cornfield (Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation) and produced by Andrés Vicente Gómez, is a true events-based historical drama.
Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia, aged just 14, was sent by his warrior father to London in 1919 to negotiate the formation of his country – dealing with Lord Curzon and Winston Churchill among many other eminent political figures. His job was to persuade the great powers, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire with WWI, to adopt a policy of non-interference towards Saudi Arabia.
A Spain/UK production, filmed mostly in the UAE, the screenplay is by Henry Fitzherbert, co-writer of the 2018 Simon Pegg/Nick Frost comedy horror Slaughterhouse Rulez, along with Bader Al Samari and Ray Loriga.
Ambleside audiences judged that it was a beautifully-shot portrayal of a fascinating and deeply moving little-known story.
Charlotte Wontner of Hopscotch Films said she was thrilled that the film’s screenwriter and one of the actors were present at the festival. She said: “The festival was a great success and we hope that Inward Eye will now become an annual feature on the film calendar.”
Alongside the festival, the very first Inward Eye Writers Workshop took place at Rydal Mount, which is the home of the poet William Wordsworth, and still owned by the Wordsworth family. Charlotte Wontner is a great great great great granddaughter of the poet.
