For thousands of years, the ancient Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus has been passed down through countless generations.
Our retelling begins with Daedala, Icarus' mother, in the aftermath of a deadly incident which means both she and her son must flee their old lives. Having asked for help from the only criminal she knows, her dealer Minos, she finds herself trapped in a contract to manufacture hallucinogenic pills known as 'Wings' in exchange for their safety.
Can Daedala use Wings to negotiate freedom for herself and her son? Or will Icarus' natural curiosity and stubbornness end in tragedy?
Wings was the pilot episode for a series of modernised retellings of ancient stories and myths. The next part of the project is Steer, which screened at international festivals in 2016.
We have always loved stories that grow and change in their retelling, and we relished the challenge of bringing this story to life in a way that fits with our 21st Century interpretation of monsters and magic.
We want to inspire people to go back and rediscover the myths for themselves, so instead of retelling an exact version of the story, we have brought together elements of different Greek retellings and added touches of our own.
We also felt that an important part of our retelling process was to acknowledge a more modern perspective on gender in storytelling, and so we have experimented here with Daedalus retold as Daedala, Icarus' talented but unfortunate mother.
"Watching my concepts be brought to life was an incredible experience. It has been an honour working alongside such a creative, enthusiastic and dedicated crew; and in the hands of a company that helped me nurture my ideas from mere thoughts into script, and then finally to the screen.
The film came a long way from the original pitch made in a small Devon pub, every step has been a pleasure and I hope one day to work alongside those associated with the project again."
Tom Durden, Creator
We were very fortunate to have two wonderful locations for this project, and we would like to extend our special thanks to both CJ Jones and Natasha Rosewell of Chaos Productions, and the Vicar and Parochial Church Council of St Chad's Church, Bishop's Tachbrook for all their kind hospitality and support of independent filmmaking.