“Donovan Slacks”, filmed in Thanet and New York is to get it’s world première later this month at the International Film Festival of Uruguay.

The film’s central character, Donovan Slacks, “a man with a fragile head” is sent to Margate Sea Bathing Hospital. On arriving in Margate he falls in love with a fishergirl, but his life goes into free-fall when he rediscovers the terrible secret of his past. In the eye of the storm he breaks free to win the woman he loves and leads the local fishermen in an uprising against the government.

The film is an astonishing achievement when you learn of the obstacles that the director, Kivmars Bowling, overcame. Over several years on next to no money, his team recreated 1920s Thanet, complete with period cars, trains and a bathing machine, and populated it with a cast of 25 actors and over 50 extras.

Bowling, originally from Thanet, said:

“Thanet has beautiful areas to it, but has always had a rundown air, a sense of faded glory. All the films that had been made there exploited this in a very obvious way. Last Resort, Last Orders, Gypo - the titles say it all really. That’s not to say these are bad films on their own terms, I just wanted to challenge the dominant view of the area. I don’t like the assumption that a film depicting social problems necessarily tackles those problems.

Putting a region on film has a validating effect, regardless of the story, be it sweet love story or violent dystopia. Which is to say, all the filmmaking presence in Thanet is a positive one - but I think there are more interesting and original ways to use that history, those locations, that beauty for differing stories ”

The film is released later this year. Find out more at the official Donovan Slacks website.