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THE WAR BRIDE

By Lyndon CHUBBUCK

INDIGO ENTERTAINMENT - as SALES / DISTR

Historical - Completed 2001

WW2: In London, Lily marries a Canadian soldier who goes off to war. She and her newborn daughter are invited to come and live with his family in Canada, where conditions are not as splendid as he had described. And nobody knows if and when he will return.

- Year of production
- 2001
- Genres
- Historical, Drama
- Countries
- UNITED KINGDOM
- Director(s)
- Lyndon CHUBBUCK
- Synopsis
- September 1940 – London – It’s the height of the blitz and two young women, Lily (Anna Friel) and Sophie (Julie Cox) work as seamstresses in a small shop in the East End. Growing up together in an orphanage, the girls are best of friends and, despite the nightly bombings, carry on as any ordinary 20 year-old women – working hard and playing hard.
  
  One night at the local dance hall, they meet and fall madly in love with two Canadian servicemen, Charlie Travis (Aden Young) and his new best friend, Louie Maldoff (Ben Weinberger). Charlie amuses Lily with stories of his family’s huge “John Wayne-style ranch” on the Canadian Prairies “near Hollywood”. Although she’s impressed, Lily is also a bit dubious.
  
  Less than two weeks later the couples are married and the boys are shipped off to the front. Lily and Sophie try to carry on with their lives as before, except Lily is now expecting Charlie’s baby. Mere months after her daughter is born, Lily and Sophie receive transportation instructions from the Canadian Embassy that they are to be shipped across the sea to their new Canadian in-laws. But the question is, where are they going and to what?
  
  After docking in Halifax, the women board a train to Montreal. There, Sophie’s in-laws welcome her en masse, well-dressed and very excited to meet Louie’s new wife. Lily prays for a similar reception.
  
  Arriving in Alberta, Lily is met with an icy reception from her bitter mother-in-law, Betty (Brenda Fricker) and crippled sister-in-law, Sylvia (Molly Parker). And the ‘dream ranch’ Charlie sung on about is nothing more than a dirt-farm with a tumbled-down tiny shack in the middle of nowhere. Lily is struck with the realization that she has left friends and the world she knew behind to be stuck in the wind-swept Canadian prairies with two strangers who wish she were somewhere else.
  
  Her struggle to win respect with the family in Canadian Wilderness runs directly against her will to be there – after everything she has been through, can she make this harsh place her home?