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7 Deadly Idiots

A woman obsessed with death builds her own coffin but can’t be bothered with the instructions.
Two men come to clear Mrs Ardent's house but get more than they bargained for.
And the devil is alive and well...and living in Lewes.

Bringing together 7 extraordinary emerging film makers and an Idiot ensemble of 7 performers (including Told by an Idiot co-founder Hayley Carmichael), along with Idiot collaborator and esteemed actor Edward Petherbridge, 7 Deadly Idiots is Told by an Idiot's unique take on the 7 Deadly Sins.

Mixing the mischievous with the macabre, the unflattering with the unsettling, this unique version of these warnings to humankind fuse laughter and pain in true Idiot style and continue Told by an Idiot's journey of creating the unexpected since 1993.

  • Ayesha Antoine
    Director
  • Stacha Hicks
    Director
  • Paul Hunter
    Director
  • Jake Mann
    Director
  • Liran Nathan
    Director
  • Ada Player
    Director
  • Joel Stern
    Director
  • Ayesha Antoine
    Writer
  • Stacha Hicks
    Writer
  • Paul Hunter
    Writer
  • Jake Mann
    Writer
  • Liran Nathan
    Writer
  • Ada Player
    Writer
  • Joel Stern
    Writer
  • Jennifer Holton
    Producer
  • Dudley Rees
    Producer
  • Hayley Carmichael
    Key Cast
  • Isabella Leung
    Key Cast
  • Jerone Marsh-Reid
    Key Cast
  • Sophie Mercell
    Key Cast
  • Edward Petherbridge
    Key Cast
  • Bharat Singh
    Key Cast
  • Sy Thomas
    Key Cast
  • Meghan Treadway
    Key Cast
  • Eliot Gelberg-Wilson
    Editors
  • Dudley Rees
    Editors
  • Joel Stern
    Editors
  • Adrienne Quartly
    Composer and Soung Designer
  • Sam Viner
    Colourist
  • Jack Bentinck
    Assistant Producer
  • Andrew Howes
    Director of Photography
  • Victoria Knipper
    Sound Recordist
  • Aiofe Goldsmith
    Assistant Camera
  • Stuart Atkins
    Assistant Camera
  • H Folkmans
    Assistant Camera
  • Project Type:
    Feature, Short
  • Genres:
    comedy, drama, thriller
  • Runtime:
    44 minutes 55 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 4, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    49,500 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • London Cinema Museum
    London
    United Kingdom
    October 20, 2022
Director Biography - Ayesha Antoine, Stacha Hicks, Paul Hunter, Jake Mann, Liran Nathan, Ada Player, Joel Stern

Paul Hunter is co-founder and Artistic Director of Told by an Idiot. Paul has worked on all Told by an Idiot shows to date as director/writer/performer.  7 Deadly Idiots marks his screen directing debut.

Directing credits include: The Ghost Train (Told by an Idiot / Royal Exchange, Manchester); Too Clever By Half (Told by an Idiot / Royal Exchange, Manchester); Every Last Trick (Royal & Derngate, Northampton); You Can’t Take It With You (Told by an Idiot / Royal Exchange, Manchester);  The Mouse and his Child (RSC); Low Pay, Don’t Pay (Salisbury Playhouse); Senora Carrar’s Rifles (Young Vic); The Opium Eater and Light is Night (Brouhaha); The Underpants (Hope Street, Liverpool); One Set to Love (National Theatre, Hungary); Not With That Hand and Jiggery Pokery (Tour/BAC), Ordago (for Punto Finco in Bilbao). 

As Associate Director at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, Paul directed: The Venetian Twins, The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Best Production, Manchester Evening News award), Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Cleo, Camping Emmanuelle and Dick. 

For other directors biographies visit - www.toldbyanidiot.org/7-deadly-idiots

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Director Statement

"I was initially inspired to create ‘7 Deadly Idiots’ by the classic port manteau films of the past, particularly Alberto Calvacanti’s astonishing 1945 movie ‘Dead of Night’. My aim was to fuse a heightened theatricality with a genuine cinematic aesthetic, and to seek to inhabit the space between laughter and pain.

As a company, we were interested in bringing together an ensemble of 7 actors and 7 Director/Writers to create a new take on the 7 Deadly sins, with all the individual tales being held together by one performance. We also wanted to work again with the performer Edward Petherbridge, who we last worked with on our smash hit show 'My Perfect Mind' in 2014. I believe he is one of the greatest British actors of the last 50 years; a veteran of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company but sadly underused on screen. For me his performance as the Devil in '7 Deadly Idiots' is a wonderfully laconic, wry and strangely poignant take on ‘Old Nick’.

Working on ‘7 Deadly Idiots’ has given Told by an Idiot, and me as the company's Artistic Director, the confidence to continue to explore the notion of making film that is resolutely cinematic whilst drawing on theatrical influences. We feel encouraged to develop our own style whilst nodding towards contemporary masters like Roy Anderson and legends such as Buñuel."

Paul Hunter, Artistic Director of Told by an Idiot