BEYOND THE POLE - mostly above the call of duty

David L Williams’- ’Beyond the Pole’, with Rhys Thomas, Stephen Mangan, Mark Benton, Alexander Skarsgård, Lars-Arentz Hansen & Rosie Cavaliero, was seen at the ICA, in the Mall, London 14/1/10

The two close friends Brian( Rhys) and Mark( Stephen), both greatly concerned about global warming, announce on a documentary that they are going to form an expedition to the North Pole - which, to boot, will also be vegetarian, very green, carbon neutral & organic - they’re both wearing tee shirts which urge - Don’t be impotent, be important!

Using Mark’s apartment( which he has just sold), we watch as they go into training - going swimming, towing tyres through country fields and spending time in a cold store. They get their kit from Pat Frank in a Camping shop - tent, skis & ordinary anoraks. And they go to the supermarket for their supplies. Their base, operated by Graham( Mark) who is into CB Radio, is a caravan - so now everything is ready! They have a last party and then they leave on their journey to Russia, from Stafford railway station! Soon enough, they’re being acclimatised in a redundant nuclear base - but, by day 3, they can tell Graham that they’re already at 73˚7’57N, 93˚8’15E.

’Beyond the Pole’, 2009, UK, Comedy, HDCam a/r 1.78, 87mins, written by Neil Warhurst, co-written by David, was produced by David & Andrew J. Curtis - whilst on the ice, and being filmed by the Documentary cameraman Steve( Clive Russell), they meet polar bears, put up with arguments and they greet a 2 man Norwegian team intent on getting to the Pole first. So, with other strings. there’s plenty going on & with good production values, there’s enough to satisfy - except for Norwegians!

This flick, budgeted overall at less than £1million, is at the ICA from February 12 and is being shown in February at the Glasgow Film Festival. And its sales are being handled by HanWay Films.

http://beyondthepole.com/

http://www.ica.org.uk/Beyond%20the%20Pole+23544.twl

simon

www.rudereviews.com

My Gran asks,“what is it with these Norwegians - that they have to get there first?” I said they made good beer, which didn‘t impress too much, but she dismissively went on ”Brian and Mark did succeed and beat Ketil( Lars-Arentz) & Terje( Alexander) and could prove it - which was better than Peary, a mere American, who said he did it in 1909!”