A SHORT film made during the lockdown, featuring an Asian mother and son with no prior acting experience, has won several independent international film awards.
Titled Wheel Gone Kid, it stars Dudley-resident Rita Jagpal-Mohan and her six-year-old son Reece. Mostly filmed outside Reece's school as well as inside and outside the family home, the movie tells the story of a computer game-obsessed boy from the West Midlands who steals his mother's car and then leads her on a car chase.
Recently, the film won the Best Comedy title at the New York Film Awards, one of many accolades won across different categories at various film festivals, including the Royal Wolf Film Award and the Toronto Independent Film Festival of Cift. Recee also won a few acting prizes at Winner Actors Awards and the Festigious International Film Festival.
"[Reece has] more awards than mummy," Jagpal-Mohan, who is a hairdresser by profession, told BBC. "It's all a bit of a dream come true."
The movie took shape when documentary-maker Keith Large spotted Recee’s skill for memorising lines during reading sessions on video calls during the lockdown.
“So I wrote a little script, and got Reece and his mum to read it,” he said, adding that the short movie was “just a bit of fun during lockdown” and “never about winning festivals.”
It was editor Matt Holt, who spotted the film's potential, Large said.
"He called and said 'get yourself some popcorn, sit down and watch this - I think you've got a winner on your hands,'" he said, adding that in terms of awards it's one of “our most successful films ever.”
The team is now planning on a follow-up and has been out scouting locations in Skegness.
Bob Blackman MP speaks during the event