Shropshire countryside lands starring role in Cannes film festival

The Con Game was shot by London-based film maker Lumino Films.

It wanted to find a setting of traditional English countryside and was attracted to the beauty of Shropshire.

Filming took place in Wem and Ellesmere during November and is now being put together in the cutting room.

Director Jane Sanger said: "We chose Shropshire for its beauty and the fact that we found a real Roma gipsy, in his 60s, with a beautiful painted vardo wagon and horse.

"We also found an amazing stud farm with a 1950s Vickers gipsy van and a 1920s showman wagon near Ellesmere that we could use for our location. Then the nearby Colemere camping site also had an old wagon.

"These and the scenery look amazing as a backdrop.

"We also used the beautiful town hall at Wem as a soup kitchen."

It is hoped success at the film festival on the French Riviera will help launch the movie and enable it to go on release in UK cinemas.

It is also hoped there will be a special event in Shropshire as part of its launch, possibly at Wem Town Hall.

Ms Sanger said: "We are experienced film makers whose work has been shown at festivals all over the world and we have been at Cannes before

"But we also hope to have a premiere of this film in Shropshire."

Ms Sanger said the film was a story of joy and triumph.

It is about a family of gypsies who go around soup kitchens picking up homeless men to work for them.

She added: "They enslave the homeless men on a remote stud farm and force them to work for no money.

"A young man who is searching for his father, who abandoned him as a child, believes his father has a connection to a stud farm in Shropshire.

"He doesn't know in what capacity the father is connected to this farm and is shocked by what he finds.

"This is based on a true story set in another place in the UK. My films always have a comment on a social issue and here I tackle the vulnerability of the homeless, the destructiveness on family life of alcoholism and the yearning to connect with your roots."

John Murray, mayor of Wem, said: "I think it is great that Wem was chosen to be the location of the film. It is great to see Wem getting some national recognition for what a beautiful area it is. I am thrilled it has been chosen."