Synopsis
Set in the chaotic 2015, when the world went from bad to worse, HABIBTI is the coming-of-age story of three generations of women living under the same roof. It’s a complicated and mostly heated family dynamic which is thrown into more turmoil when a disheartened Liv, the youngest of the three, volunteers in a refugee camp in France (without telling anyone), returning a few months later with Rozina, who fled the war in Syria.
Finding herself among this quirky trio, it turns out Rozina has a lot more to offer than Connie, the eldest of the three, would ever have given her credit for, and the broken family slowly, and at times reluctantly, start to heal, thanks to their new addition. That is until a secret emerges which threatens to destroy their new family forever.
A comedy-drama and female-focused feature film where disconnection and heartache is rife but has to be embraced in order to move forward. Each character has their own internal prison which only they can unlock, but are they too damaged, and is it ever too late to start again?
Writer/Director – Kirsty Robinson-Ward
Kirsty is currently shooting BBC’s long-running and much loved drama ‘Doctors’, her latest short film ‘Just in Case’ starring Philip Glenister and April Kelley (which was supported by Bipolar UK) is having a successful film festival run and has won a series of awards around the world. Kirsty’s short film ‘Canned’, starring BAFTA-winner Georgina Campbell and BAFTA Breakthrough Brit Paapa Essiedu, was selected for the BFI’s ‘Girlfriends’ Festival and screened at many others including the BAFTA-qualifying Underwire and Rhode Island Festival. Her project ‘I’m Grant’ was shortlisted at the BBC Writersroom and she directed low-budget feature film ‘Tea + Cake’ which from concept to screen took at the time over half her life to complete, it’s now available to watch on Amazon.
Before Kirsty went freelance as a Writer/Director she worked her way up in the industry in a variety of production and development roles at Working Title Films (‘Anna Karenina’ dir Joe Wright), Shoebox Films (‘Locke’ starring Tom Hardy) and Hat Trick Productions (‘Derry Girls’). At 19 she was the youngest applicant selected for the prestigious Action Internship at Working Title Films, before which she worked in theatre, beginning with a place at the National Youth Theatre.