A BRITISH slapstick comedy masquerading as a French crime drama, Revénge à Paris follows a young woman as she swaps the mundanity of working in a café for a new life in the crime-ridden Parisian underworld.

The film is designed to be an ode to French culture for Francophiles of all ages. There’s un petit problem though – none of the filmmakers can speak French.

Revénge à Paris was devised by a collective of writers, actors and musicians – William Lambert, Alan Wilyman, Nico Franks, Joe Gamble, Jonathan Milshaw, Danny Horn, Ben Walker and Nathan Comer – who all grew up in Ilkley together in the late 90s to mid-00s.

The group stayed in touch after leaving Ilkley and have since all settled in London (apart from Ben, who is now in Australia), with many of the group pursuing acting careers and others working in the media.

The process of filming the pilot took four days in Ilkley in May 2018, during which rehearsals took place at Upstagers Theatre while Café J on The Grove was used as the main shooting location.

A host of Ilkley residents feature in the short film, including Jan Thomas, who has starred in numerous productions at the Ilkley Playhouse; multiple close relatives of Jonathan Milshaw; and Brian Morris, who taught Nico and Joe at Ashlands Primary School in the 1990s and is credited as ‘stunt driver.’

The Ilkley Playhouse and its wardrobe was also a big help during the filming, with Sacha Denney-Rodwell, who now oversees the department, serving as wardrobe supervisor on the shoot.

Once post-production on the pilot had been completed, the short film was screened to friends and family at the Ilkley Playhouse in December 2018. The group is now entering the short film into various film festivals around the world and are looking to make more episodes with a broadcaster or streaming service.

The short film was produced with funding from Bristol-based Wildseed Studios, who the group pitched the project to using previous films they’d made on zero budget in Ilkley and put on YouTube since 2009.

It will receive its US premiere this month as part of an event called SeriesFest, which usually takes place in Denver in June. This year due to the pandemic they’re doing it all online between June 18 - 24. It’s a major event in the TV calendar, with speakers such as Jeffrey Katzenberg (co-founder of DreamWorks) this year, while last year they had Ted Sarandos (chief content officer at Netflix).

The short film has already won the Audience Award at Sunday Shorts Film Festival in Lisbon and is in the Late Night Competition category at SeriesFest.

* Director: William Lambert Screenwriter: Alan Wilyman Producers: Miles Bullough, Jesse Cleverly, Andy Mosse, Mark Stopher, Nico Franks Cast: Gabrielle Dempsey, Megan Leigh Mason, William Lambert, Alan Wilyman, Danny Horn, Jonathan Milshaw, Lotte O’Keeffe, Joe Gamble, Nico Franks, James Finan