Synopsis of the feature film "SUSAN":
SUSAN is a story of love and war, a full length feature social drama revolving around a loving wife and mother name Susan. The film is set in London, England, where the family live.
Susan is struggling with the daily reality of losing her husband Paul, who was fighting in Afghanistan. Despite her suffering, she tries to stay strong for her young daughter, Lisa. This love strengthens her and keeps her hope alive, in spite of the emotional pain of their new situation.
Over the course of the film, further traumatic events push Susan deeper into despair, although she fights hard to stay strong and keep the love for her family alive. While she is alone, full of pain and misery, one unexpected moment happens and this is just the beginning !
Susan’s lonely journey takes another unexpected turn, pushing her to fight hard to save herself and those she loves.
A film Directed by: Mahmoud Shoolizadeh
Screenplay written by: Mahmoud Shoolizadeh
Cinematographer: Jesse Mickel
Lighting Assistant: Karoli Czifra
Sound Recordist: Daniel Discombe
Production, Set & Costume Designer: Mahmoud Shoolizadeh
1st Assistant director: Rozina Behrooz
Original Music Composer: George Palousis
Classical Vocalist: Debbie Delwynne
Still Photographer: Dean Wright
Location Scouts: Anthony Millott
Edited by: Mahmoud Shoolizadeh
Executive Producer: Rozina Behrooz
Produced by: Mahmoud Shoolizadeh
Duration: 112 minutes
London, England, UK, 2018
Jennifer Preston, Mitchell Thornton,
Ville Loikkanen, Holly Lawton, Hannah Templeton-Cox, Christopher Mulvin,
Stephen Clark, Amanda Davidge, Brandon McConnell, Jennifer Roach.
Director’s point of view:
SUSAN is about Love and War.
It is the story of Susan, a strong, kind woman and a loving wife and mother, living in present day London.
SUSAN is also the story of the people who live around us, who are suffering psychologically from a destructive war, and whose whole lives will be overshadowed by their horrific experiences.
It is the story of those men and women who go to war, and even though they survive physically, they return with serious mental health issues that destroy their lives and the lives of the people they love. In this case, pure unconditional love brings emotional peace.
Susan is a very loyal, loving woman, who lives with her husband Paul and her daughter Lisa. She suffers psychologically after losing her husband in the Afghanistan war. We see different types of feelings in the film, from anti-war to pure love.
SUSAN is a Modern Social Realism film about the people who may look healthy physically, but are destroyed mentally. They suffer from deep pain and trauma, caused directly by war.
I, as the film director and producer, have tried to bring those people’s story onto the big screen, a movie with a mixture of emotion and feelings of Anti war and pure Love.
I can say the concept of the cinema that I like can be seen in SUSAN is a new and creative way, the concepts like Love, Death, Religious doubts, Human pain, God’s silence, Crisis made by war and its sociological and psychological consequences. In fact, in SUSAN by the storytelling and cinematic process, I tried to demonstrate the human’s soul. SUSAN is a film that comes from my heart and it is a reaction to the world around me. That is what I wanted to reflect. There are not any kind of strange technical show off in the SUSAN.
This film has been made with limited resources and most of the jobs in it were done by myself due to these limitations. I proved to myself that I have endurance, braveness and perseverance in making films. For me making film is creativity, it is so enjoyable and glorious at the same time. So, I would like to share this experience with others.
Here is the Official Trailer of the feature film "SUSAN":
The Official Posters of the feature film "SUSAN"