Troubled Children Films

Format: 35mm
Duration: 120 Minutes Approx.
Director-Writer-Producer-Editor: Jaspreet Grewal

“Very promising writing. Missing Identities shows an interesting take on a side of London we haven’t often seen in the movies.”
- Ed King (Rocket Pictures - Elton John’s film production company)

“Missing Identities’ subject is interesting and well chosen…and the screenplay has a good sense of style…”
- Emily Hayward (Peters Fraser & Dunlop - Europe’s largest film talent agency)

“A gripping and compelling story that reworked the investigative drama in an interesting fashion whilst presenting a distinctive portrayal of London in it's shadier light.”
- Charlie Mitchell (Pathé Productions)

“The script displays strong writing and magnetic characters…”
- Luke Parker Bowles (Working Title Films - makers of Four Weddings and a Funeral and the Oscar winning Fargo)

The face of England’s capital city is vastly different now than from any other era. Post World War Two labour shortages have led to massive immigrant influxes from British colonies past and present, from Africa, the Caribbean, Bangladesh, China, and India.

Decades on from the first wave of immigration, signs of totally successful integration in British society are still at a premium…

Twenty-eight year old private detective Harnum Gill, based in the heart of the world famous ‘Ripper-Country’, Whitechapel, is a second generation immigrant. Tortured by a runaway sister’s death while young, and still coming to terms with the various culture clashes he faces everyday at home, and in society at large, he stands for outsiders everywhere, constantly in search of an identity.

Already engaged in a number of missing persons cases with his associates, Gill arrives at his office one morning to find a young Asian girl asking for his assistance to find a friend of hers who has disappeared after a domestic fallout with her parents. Initially reluctant to take on the case due to his client’s lack of finance, Gill eventually relents and so begins a hectic week in his life which will see him arrested, beaten, his home life mix with his professional, saving a number of clients, and letting down another, all while trying to make time for the girl that he loves.

Tagging along for the ride with Gill, because of debts that he owes his old friend, is black hipster Ali De Tong. Gill must negotiate his loyalties, his contacts within the police, crooks/low-lives in the East End, and the local racist element, to do his job properly, and to satisfy his burning obsessions. (Obsessions about not letting destitute kids turn to selling their morality, in return for survival.)

Dealing with tough contemporary ethnic issues like arranged and forced marriage, with an eclectic pop soundtrack comprising the very best that all cultures have to offer, characters more true to life than rip-off mockney B-grade movies, and a phantasmagorical look that brings to life the real London in all its vibrancy, Missing Identities will be a British film quite unlike any that has come before it.

A screenplay numbering some 148 pages (third draft), Missing Identities was researched for several months before Jaspreet Grewal set about writing it.

Drawing on personal experience, inside information on the subject matter, research into actual cases (of ‘honour killings’, runaways etc.) and time spent with real private investigators, Grewal has constructed a screenplay that is at once authentic and dramatically dynamic too:

“Verisimilitude for Missing Identities is important because the subject matter is weighty and real. It deserves nothing less than full respect, but at the same time you have to condense all of the strands we’re dealing with into a concise screenplay. That means sometimes we’ll speed something up or simplify it.

“However, the script is honest because even though Harnum Gill (the private eye) sort of manages to close four cases by the end, only one is presumed to be on a happy note, one is on a sombre - or sour - note, one is totally messy - professionally - and one is only done tentatively, over a phone call. That’s the reality of it - and remember; he failed one case too.

“Unfortunately there are few ‘happy endings’ in real life. We begin with a disequilibrium, and end in disequilibrium. In real life it can take YEARS or DECADES for a case to be resolved, or for a person to be found, if at all.”

What of the generic confines of the script? Missing Identities takes on an almost American feel in terms of it’s tone and pace. “This is a genre film for young people and young adults. It wouldn’t have been out of place in America in the 1970’s, when they still made lots of genre films for adults, and not just for 14 year olds.

“I don’t see the problem with concentrating on criminal activities and detective procedure, even though we’re not a film set on the mean streets of New York City! Those kinds of films normally do well in Europe and Britain, too. They’re lucrative American exports. Just because we’re in England doesn’t mean we have to stick to comedies and grey social dramas. We should try making hyperbolic, fast genre films because often they end up working. Defence Of The Realm and Lock Stock (And Two Smoking Barrels) are two decent examples.
“This industry can be pretty obtuse at times.”

Composer Kee Lewis has already confirmed he will do some mood pieces for the soundtrack, several name stars have been contacted regarding major roles and Jaspreet Grewal has so far personally raised £100,000 for the project.

To download a PDF format of the Missing Identities PROSPECTUS for potential investors, Contact us.