The feature film Saol (Life) wrapped on 15th December last year in Dublin in a time of just 14 hours. Saol was made as part of a new concept called Whisper Film Projects, which aims to make low-budget feature films in 12 hours.
This first project, Saol, is directed by the Spanish, Dublin-based director Paco Torres and produced by Edwina Forkin at Zanzibar Films and Stephen Gibson at RCA Media Productions, in collaboration with Colin Browne at Film Equipment Hire, Vast Valeey, Filmbase and Glue VFX. The film features a number of Irish actors such as Chelsea O’Connor, Paula Mc Glinchey, Oliver Mc Quillan, Rory Mullen, Andie Mc Caffrey, Joe McKinney, Mark Mc Auley, Lynn Larkin and Edward Cosgrave.
The project was realised with no script. Scenes were works of improvisation worked out between director and actors on the day. The core crew followed guidelines from the director which had been developed beforehand with a team of writers that included Shane Perez, Gemma Creagh, Iarlaith Forkin and Daniel Brennan.
Saol is about anxiety, obsessions and a reconstruction of a family after the loss of a family member. It is set in Dublin, in a house in an upper class neighbourhood. The key characters are lost. They don’t know what to do with their lives – so the only solution is to start everything from the very beginning and return to the most powerful emotion of all – love.
