The Soldier on Smithdown Road
Synopsis: Liverpool, 1947. Two British soldiers are kidnapped and murdered in Mandate Palestine. In the aftermath of the so-called ‘Sergeants Affair’, a wave of antisemitic riots sweep across the UK. Louis Scholnick, a British-Jewish World War Two veteran, is forced to defend his family’s shop from a violent mob.
Director Biography - Barney Pell Scholes, Thomas Harnett O'Meara
Barney Pell Scholes is a writer and filmmaker from Liverpool, now based in London. His script for The Soldier on Smithdown Road was selected for funding through the 2023 Pears Short Film Fund at UK Jewish Film. He co-wrote the script for Grown in the Dark, an animated short film that was selected for funding through the BFI 2022 Short Film Fund and is currently in production. He was featured in the BFI Network Talent Guide 2021-2022 for the South East of England.Together with his writing and directing partner Thomas Harnett O’Meara, he co-wrote and co-directed Ourselves Alone, an award-winning live-action short film that has been selected for multiple international film festivals, and was a finalist for Best Northern Ireland Film at The British Short Film Awards 2022.His script The Haunted Violin was a short screenplay finalist at the 2021 Waterford International Film Festival.
Thomas Harnett O’Meara is a London-based director who graduated from the Royal College of Art’s animation programme in 2015. Since then he has won numerous awards and made films for some of the world's biggest brands. In 2016 Tom worked on Wes Anderson’s Oscar-nominated Isle of Dogs. In 2018, Tom directed a short film version of The Wind in the Willows with David Attenborough and Stephen Fry, highlighting loss of habitats for The Wildlife Trusts. The film racked up a social reach of 17 million and went on to win a British Animation Award. In 2019 Tom collaborated with Richard Curtis on a short film for the UN. In 2020, Tom made his feature film debut, animation directing the star studded Roald and Beatrix: The Tale of the Curious Mouse, Sky One’s Christmas Special. The film went on to have Sky’s highest ever Christmas broadcast viewing figures.
Together with his writing and directing partner Barney Pell Scholes, he co-wrote and co-directed Ourselves Alone, an award-winning live-action short film that has been selected for multiple international film festivals, and was a finalist for Best Northern Ireland Film at The British Short Film Awards 2022.