The World of
Mrs. Churchill’s War
Set in the glittering realm of the British Empire between the world wars, Mrs. Churchill’s War is the story of a woman’s struggle for empowerment as she grapples with the conflicting claims of love and duty - Casablanca from a woman’s point of view.
Tone, Style, Theme
rich, dramatic, touching
Award Winning Script
Screenplay winner Woods Hole Film Festival Screenwriting Competition, Slamdance finalist, top five percent Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting.
Details
Period: 1934
Genre: Period Drama
Budget: £15,000,000
Synopsis
It is 1934. Clementine Churchill’s “marriage of the century” to the dynamic, eccentric Winston Churchill is in trouble. Searching for renewal, she accepts an invitation on a four-month cruise to the East Indies.
From the beginning, her luxurious voyage does not go as planned. Storms at sea, riots in Burma, the Nazi menace, and a heart-stopping romance with Terence Philip, a young, fascinating, London art dealer, take her to breaking point.
Clementine’s struggle with the feelings that threaten to destroy her marriage culminates in a mystical experience with an Indonesian shaman. Stalked by Komodo dragons, will she live to make her fateful choice between destiny and desire? Historians and those who knew them generally agree, without his wife, Winston Churchill would not have been able to lead Britain to stand alone against the Nazi menace.
If Britain had succumbed, there would have been no way to win the European war - no British bomber bases, no place to launch an assault force, no D-Day. There would have been no way to stop the Nazis.
Characters
Clementine Churchill
Granddaughter of an earl, once declared “the most beautiful girl in England,” an aristocrat chafing at the unwritten rules of British upper class life. Intelligent, charismatic, ahead of her time, with great physical courage, she yearns for a larger role and personal fulfilment. She finds empowerment on an expedition to Indonesia and makes a life-changing decision to return and become Winston Churchill’s most influential adviser and social conscience. Winston later said it was Clementine who made “my life & any work I have done possible.”
Winston Churchill
Brilliant, witty, athletic, filled with ambition at an early age. Not the Churchill familiar to the general public, but rather the private Winston — energetic, an enthusiastic painter in oils and watercolour, an active horse rider and Polo player. His hair is still reddish, though receding, and he builds stone walls on his country estate with great enthusiasm. He declares,“My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.”
Terence Philip
Urbane art dealer, seven years younger than Clementine. They share drinks, dances and earnest conversation, explore nature together and find they are in harmony in many areas of life. With a combination of Terence’s charm, the sunshine and the exoticism of the voyage it is not long before they fall in love.
Walter Guinness and Lady Vera Broughton
The first Lord Moyne, heir to the Guinness fortune and one of the richest men in England. His great passion, observing and collecting rare plants and animals. He is a charming and agreeable host with a wonderful dry wit and lively sense of humour.
Guinness’s mistress is the wife of a good friend of his who is in on the open secret. Vera is both a 1930s socialite, smoking French cigarettes in an ivory holder, and a thoroughly modern woman, working as a photographer and writer for National Geographic Magazine. She has a somewhat jaded outlook on life which at first brings her closer to, and later into conflict with, Clementine.
Nelly Keifer &
Jan Verhaan
A secondary love story between Clementine’s aide, Nelly Keifer, and a lively young Eurasian, Jan, who guides them though Southeast Asia on their journey, broadens global appeal and allows the film to include an actor who can expand the youth audience in Asian markets. The role may be filled by a pop singer in Asia, a common tactic found in films in South Korea, India, Japan, and China.
Dame Anna Parker
Anna, Clementine’s “honorary great-aunt,” her friend and confidant, a master of the Tarot deck, who advises Clementine on her life-changing decision. A great cameo for a national treasure.
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