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Honey Street

A woman refuses to get old.

  • John Gillett
    Director
  • John Gillett
    Writer
  • John Gillett
    Producer
  • Sara Stewart
    Key Cast
    "Mary"
    Batman Begins, Philomela, A Cock and Bull Story, The Road to Guantanamo, Sightseers, Mrs Brown.
  • Robert Portal
    Key Cast
    "Archie"
    The King's Speech, The Huntsman, Paintball Massacre, Mrs Dallkoway, Hungry Joe, Eat Locals, Hurricane, 6 Days, My Week with Marilyn
  • Philip Whitchurch
    Key Cast
    "John"
    Peterloo, Interview with a Hitman, Doors Open, Beowulf and Grendel, Einstein and Eddington, The Doorman., Sharpe's Siege, Sharpe's Revenge, The English Patient, Defence of the Realm.
  • Wendy Nottingham
    Key Cast
    "Debbie"
    Topsy Turvy, Vera Drake, Housewife, Notes on a Scandal, The Last Letter from your Lover, Secrets and Lies, The Children Act, Atonement, Mary Reilly, Babel.
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 14 minutes 22 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 22, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    0 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - John Gillett

John Gillett has been an actor for 5 centuries. And has directed nothing before.

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Director Statement

Honey Street is a tiny hamlet in Wiltshire. The Kennet and Avon canal flows through it. The Alton Barnes White Horse, etched into a hillside, presides over Honey Street, and the various crop circles that appear regularly in the fields around it. The stones of Avebury are close by. As is Silbury Hill.
England at its most mysterious. And lovely. And elemental. And unfathomable.
This is not Guildford. Or Purley.
I lived in a nearby village for 10 years. 6 or 7 years ago, I met a woman in one of our 2 village pubs. She was visiting her daughters in the village. A friendly, blonde, Scandinavian looking woman, with a kind, calm, easy-going way about her. A woman from Wiltshire, who, I later discovered, was 49 years old.
Soon afterwards, this woman embarked on a series of actions, which mystified me. As many things in Wiltshire did. And do.
Honey Street is inspired by her. It alludes to things she actually did, but is not her story. It's a fiction. An attempt to try and make sense of something seemingly senseless. It's also a love/hate letter to Wiltshire.
Some of Britain's finest actors are here. Often filming scenes in real situations. With real people coming in and out of shot. Sometimes the actors didn't know where the camera was. Sometimes the actors knew that they had only one chance to capture the scene. They were always brilliant. The sound was sometimes less than brilliant.
The feel of Honey Street is of a home movie that somehow curdles into a life of its own. Technical considerations have always taken secondary place to capturing something real.
The film is a total guess at what the Scandinavian looking woman, 49 years old, with a calm easy-going demeanour, whom I met for a matter of minutes in a Wiltshire village pub, might have been really like. Might have thought. Might have behaved like in her past. It does not for a second pretend to be an accurate portrayal.
The film is not Cluedo. The film has nobody searching for clues as to who did what to whom. And where. And with what. So it's already a rarity. But it does ask you to consider why. Why life that can seem so precious, can also seem so worthless.
I've loved the films of the Iranian directors, Panahi and Kiarostami. Honey Street is a, very humble, salute to them both.