ATG Films, a small Hampshire-based production company has completed a short film, The Long Shadow. Scripted and produced by Andrew Barrett, it tells the story of Private Reginald Tite of the Royal Sussex Regiment who was shot at dawn for cowardice on 25 November 1916. He was 27 years of age.
During its' ten minutes duration, the film shows Private Tite being prepared for execution and recounts, in a series of flashbacks, the appalling events and experiences to which he reacted and that resulted in his fate. Actor Tim Lowe plays Private Tite.
Involving both professional and amateur cast and crew, filming took place using a disused quarry near Chichester, West Sussex.
Although initially intended for the cinema, the film will also be published in video and DVD formats and will form an excellent visual aid for school presentations and similar purposes.
The film will be released as soon as sponsorship funds are sufficient.
Around thirty local extras, many of whom had lost relatives during World War One, enthusiastically donned the khaki uniforms their grandfathers and great-uncles would have worn eighty-odd years ago. Like them they were drilled and shown how to hold rifles, like them they marched, winning admiring glances from onlookers and families, proud of the smart sight they presented. Unlike their predecessors, however, as they laughed, joked, sprawled on the grass and 'smoked' rolled cigarettes, they knew they would return home; not 'by Christmas' but later that day.
The Long Shadow cast members - February 2001
The 5 February 2002 article in The Independent newspaper Open Eye section was illustrated with a still shot from The Long Shadow.
Rudyard Kipling
(C) EFE 2001
Photographs courtesy of ATG Films
