A win for warriors filmed on Wearside

Apr 4 2008 by David Whetstone, The Journal

A JAPANESE samurai film shot in Durham has won an award for its director – a Frenchman who lives in Gateshead.

Pascal Fintoni’s day job is as head of e-business at North East Regional Portal n-e-life.com, based on Gateshead’s Team Valley trading estate.

Yesterday the 39-year-old explained: “My job is to support local organisations in terms of making sense of the web.”

But once the suit is hung up at the end of the working day, Pascal is free to indulge his passion for movies and martial arts.

These – along with a deep love for his adopted North East – come together in Land of the Kami, a 55-minute feature film which has been honoured at the international festival organised by the Film and Video Institute.

Extraordinarily for a first feature, it was given a three star rating in the festival competition, meaning the judges deemed it well-made, technically competent and entertaining. The black and white film will be premiered at the Gala Theatre in Durham on April 13 in aid of the Children’s Foundation and Pascal is now talking to distributors in the hope of securing a cinema release.

The film, with a cast of North East martial arts experts, has also been entered for international competitions.

Pascal grew up in South West France, moved to England at the age of 17 and relocated to the North East 12 years ago.

“I used to work in the travel industry,” he explained.

“I came to a holiday exhibition at the MetroCentre, fell in love with Newcastle and thought if ever things changed for me, I would move here. This I did back in 1996.

“My background is in marketing and communications so I have always been exposed, throughout my career, to visual media and I have been very fortunate to have managed projects which were involved with video and film-making.

“But I have always been passionate about cinema, from when I was a very young age and living in France.”

A boyhood hero was kung fu star Bruce Lee. But Pascal now has a large collection of martial arts films. It was while walking in Kepier Wood in Durham City that he was inspired to add to the genre, writing his first screenplay in September 2006.

On his movie blog, he explains: “The striking combination of dense woodland and dramatic cliffs was utterly compelling.

“I love movies that bring elements of problem-solving. For me the best stories are those that invite you to think: What would I do in that situation?”

In Land of the Kami he puts two characters, Kohitsuji and Rishisune, in life-threatening situations in a cursed wood.

All Pascal then lacked was a cast and crew. But he solved this after seeing an aikido demonstration at the Durham County Show and deciding the martial art fighters would make an ideal cast.

Shooting took place in Kepier Wood last May. Pascal and Paul will receive their award in a ceremony in Harrogate on April 20.

Click here to watch a trailer for the film

The plot

LAND of the Kami is set in Japan in 1575 after the authorities have declared trade with the West illegal.

The Battle of Nagashino in Mikawa Province is coming to a brutal end with Takeda Katsuyori leading his troops on a final assault on Nagashino Castle.

His cavalry charge is halted by the arrival of Oda Nobunaga using Western-style tactics and firearms.

Only a handful of soldiers survive.

Separated from their comrades, brothers Kohitsuji and Rishisune manage to escape.

Several days later, exhausted by trying to elude Oda Nobunaga’s scouts, they seek refuge in a dense wood.

Little do they realise that they have entered an area local villagers call "Bachiatari Mokuzai" (Cursed Wood).

Quickly the pair become the target of an enraged spirit, or Kami, who will stop at nothing to ensure that they do not leave alive.