Partner pulls plug

THE British government's sudden decision to withdraw from Eurimages, a fund which can offer a lifeline to pan European co productions, will not just hamper movie makers in Britain. It also threatens to make life more difficult for Irish film makers, writes Rob Brown.

Britain and Ireland have proved to be natural partners in the field. In fact, of the nine Irish led projects which have been aided by Eurimages in the last nine months, only one did not involve a partnership with Britain.

"The Irish have been working well with the UK, as producers, and now they stand to lose that due to an utterly nonsensical decision by the Department of National Heritage," said Barrie Ellis Jones who, being British, has felt obliged to offer his resignation as executive secretary of Eurimages.

This former deputy director of the British Film Institute is embarrassed, as well as angered, by the fact that Britain is set to join Albania and the Vatican as the only states not backing this Council of Europe initiative.

His anger is fuelled by his knowledge that Britain has probably been the biggest beneficiary of the fund. The past three years, 567 films involving a UK producer including Ken Loach's recent celluloid study of the Spanish civil war, Land and Freedom have received cash from this source.

The fund provides a top up cash in the form of repayable loans to productions involving three countries, which are notoriously difficult to finance.

The only Irish led project to obtain Eurimages assistance without a British co producer was Guiltrip, a Spanish Italian Irish co production. Among the eight which contain a UK input are Roseland, The Disappearance of Fin bar Brennan, The Bishop's Story and The Last of the High Kings.

The British government pays just £2 million for its annual membership, yet the DNH's decision to pull out seems to be based purely on budgetary grounds.

Rumours that the move was a panic response to the controversy surrounding Suite 16, a UK supported erotic thriller about a young tear away who seduces and robs older women, are discounted by Mr Ellis Jones.

"I don't go along with that," he said. "The move is simply designed to save money, even though, from a financial point of view, it is one of the daftest decisions one could possibly make."

THE decision has been denounced in even stronger terms by Rod Stoneman, the chief executive of the Irish FilmBoard. "It is a completely sad and mad move, which is beyond the bounds of political and economic sense, let alone cultural logic," he said.

If Britain does not return to the fold its decision to withdraw is being challenged on legal grounds Irish film makers will have to network to find other co production partners on the continent. "But we'll have to work hard on that front," Mr Stoneman said.