IN OFFICIAL SELECTION "GRIEF FROM MADAME BUTTERFLY" WRITTEN BY BARRY LEACH

BIO:

"Grief from Madame Butterfly" is one of 5 screenplays that Barry has written.

He completed the certificate programmes at UCLA Extension in Feature Film Writing and Television Writing. He is doing an MA in Screenwriting at Bournemouth University, and an MA in Film Production at Canterbury Christchurch University.
He has also acted in TV commercials in Turkey and a Turkish film.

LOGLINE:

A student going to a med-school interview must safely escort a psychologically ill ex-opera diva from Wichita to San Francisco to attend her ex-lover's funeral.

Liz, an ex-opera diva, has Cotard's Syndrome. If she doesn't receive regular treatment, her psychosis kicks in - she believes she is dead and her spirit hasn't left her body. In short, she thinks she is a walking corpse.

When Liz learns that her ex-lover and opera partner Edward de Villiers has died, she discovers that the only way she can get to the funeral is on a road trip with the son of one of the male nurses from her psychiatric home, Ben.

Liz's doctor cajoles Ben into taking Liz by promising to write a letter of recommendation to a professor at Stanford and then to telephone him personally - but only if Ben manages to get Liz to San Francisco in one sane piece.

Along the way, during Liz's lapses into her psychosis, Ben is forced to extremes such as holding up a drug-store with a paintball pistol to get Liz her medication and to get her to her hospital appointments - this is while Liz mummifies herself with toilet paper when her porta-potty is taken away by truck, or when she is jumping into grave holes to have herself buried.

By looking after Liz, Ben, learns to get in touch with his grief after losing his mother to cancer. He also discovers that his true calling is as a nurse, just like his father.

In return, Ben helps Liz leave the legacy that she was cheated out of, by unravelling the mystery of her stolen original recordings that were never put onto record. First, though, Liz must learn to heal the age-old rift between her and the woman who took her lover away.