The relationship of two sisters, Rose and Elsa, is strained even more after Rose is found guilty of murdering their parents, even if she has no recollection of doing so. For the last time, a troubled Elsa pays her a visit in the prison only to find herself and meet the consequences of her actions.

I remember the day I volunteered to be the director for The Roots of You.
I was sitting next to the two producers Audrey L’Ebrellec and Jacqueline Berces as they were discussing the first steps of pre-production. I heard them talk about finding a Director for the project and I felt the butterfly feeling of a big opportunity being presented to me.

I quickly dived into the script and was mesmerised by the story and atmosphere. The dark side of humanity being presented in such a vulnerable fragile humane way that makes you both feel sorry for the characters and judge them at the same time. As both an actor and director I am very interested in exploring this element of humanity and bringing it to the screen in the best way possible with my actors and filmmakers.

I can’t wait to be standing on the set, coffee cup in one hand and script in the other. Getting creative and seeing this brilliant story being brought to life by this wonderful team of filmmakers!

This story is about family, mental health, making a choice, survival instinct, guilt and redemption. In our story, we wanted to give a chance to the characters to go through their journeys, and express their thoughts and feelings that are often denied, judged, or silenced, or seen as shameful, especially in our society and in the inner family system. It isn’t about proving the murder right, but rather exploring the difficult choices in life that led them to this situation.

With “The Roots of You” we want to portray an intimate and realistic view on mental health in our society.

The colour grading in “The Roots of You” plays a very important part of the story. It is treated as a character on itself.
We will be using a mix of black & white and colours throughout the story to represent different stages in the characters’ journey and their emotions.

Jes Gislason is an Icelandic actor & director.
He graduated from Arts University Bournemouth in 2018 with B.A.(hons) in Acting, since then he has directed multiple short films, his last project being a Shakespearean short film, currently in post production, acted in a independent film and worked as a fight performer for a BBC Two docudrama series.

"I am very excited to direct The Roots of you! I have worked with the team before on various other projects and I trust them completely in bringing some brilliant and beautiful storytelling to this project.”

Audrey L’Ebrellec is an actress, actor combatant and voice artist originally from France.

She is best known for portraying Mary Queen of Scots in “Elizabeth I” opposite Lily Cole. Last year she worked for the first time with the production company Picture Perfect on “We Go in at Dawn”. And only a few months later she worked again with them on their film “King Arthur & Merlin: Knights of Camelot”.

Audrey is also a strong supporter of the save the planet movement and wishes to educate more people about their impact on the environment.
She started to write "The Roots of You" for the stage when she was a teenager. The story got lost and several years later Audrey found it and collaborated with Jacqueline Berces to finish this story and make it for the screen.

Jacqueline Berces started performing at an early age through ballet and music, and then headed for an acting and singing career in Paris and London. She has performed in a wide variety of plays and musicals, while having been seen on French Television and making her "movie debut" in Christian Lara's movie "The Legend”.

While shooting for top commercials around Europe, she sang for different cabarets in London and played the lead role of Marjorie in the movie “Iron Heart” directed by Daniel Arbon. She most recently has been seen in the TV series , “Genius 2 : Pablo Picasso”, and collaborates often with the theatre company “The UnDisposables”.

She also works regularly as a voice talent (dubbing, corporates, commercials, video games). Passionate about travelling and healing through stories, music, movement and voice, she loves to combine different arts to express her creativity. Writing "The Roots of You" with Audrey was a natural step, and she is thrilled to bring this film to life.

Our plan for “The Roots of You” is to enter the festival circuit to help to bring more awareness about mental health and hopefully pass on the knowledge that mental can be experienced by everyone and no one should be ashamed of it and have to deal with it on their own.

We have an initial budget which will be covering a part of the pre production and filming side of things.
Now we need to raise more funds to be able to hire a sound recordist for the shooting, catering and  all the post production of our film so it can come to life to an audience.

We are committed to pay our cast and crew professional rates and ensure that everyone is fed properly, and working in a safe environment. As well, we are shooting in London and as you may know it’s quite an expensive city.

Finally we are aiming to enter the festival circuits to promote mental health in films.

Our post production budget covers:
Sound recordist
Post production: Editing and music
Catering
Marketing
Festivals

We are determined to make things happen for all of us, and continue to tell stories and create films despite the current world situation with Covid- 19. Safety measures will be put in place to guaranty the cast and crew's well being and safety.

More than ever, the world needs artists and entertainment. As filmmakers we love to tell stories and give everyone a chance to escape and enjoy themselves.

We understand that the pandemic had a huge impact on everyone’s finances and you ability to donate,
If you are able to donate toward our film, we will be deeply grateful to you. If this happens to be a difficulty, spreading the word about our campaign will be greatly appreciated.