More Pictures of Red Rose Film

Here is the film poster. Red Rose was translated into over 12 different languages including Chinese. Shown in many countries on TV, it has enjoyed screenings in Central Europe on HBO's satalite channel.

I wrote the screenplay during 1997 to 1999, but the film was not made by Palm Tree UK until 2004. As a native of the town of Dumfries I was brought up hearing the local stories about Robert Burns, which were not available in current books of the time.

SYNOPSIS
AD1792. Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet, falls in love with an aristocrat's wife. Denounced as a supporter of the French Revolution, four years later he is dead.

Robert Burns overcomes his upbringing as a farm labourer to become the national poet of Scotland. Love comes his way in the form of Jean Armour but his attempts at securing a happy relationship are blighted by Jean's father who disapproves of Burns. Finally, Jean and Robbie are married and Burns tries to settle down to a happy married life, but the success of his literary career brings with it many temptations and he is unable to resist the attention of the aristocratic women who fawn upon him.

Finding difficulties in supporting his growing family of children, Burns seeks work as a local tax inspector in the port of Dumfries while Britain is threatened by the spread of the French Revolution. He falls in love with married aristocrat Maria Riddell, and through this, he is unwittingly exposed to vicious rumors about him. Siding with the sentiments of the revolution, his republican stance provokes retaliation from the aristocracy. Walter Riddell, Maria's husband, circulates false rumours to ruin his reputation. Systematically Burns is ousted from all polite society, then reduced to poverty by his government employers. Only his wife Jean and his friend Lewars stand by him.

Burns, blighted by illness since youth, bids to ease his suffering by giving in to the cures of Doctor Maxwell, who wrongly prescribes mercury. Faced with death, Burns reaffirms his love for Maria, but comes to terms with his powerlessness to right his many affairs in the face of his marriage to Jean while he fights to make sure his work is not destroyed.

Below this picture shows how he got himself into trouble.

This picture shows the reconstruction in the film of an evening at the Theatre Royal, when Robert Burns was reputed to have started a revolt because he refused to stand for the National Anthem. The audience reciprocated his jesture, by singing the C'Ira instead, the song of the French revolution.

The DVD is available to download on Amazon.com
See the trailer here in the video side bar on You Tube.com by searching the channel.

Red Rose the film about Robert Burns finds some photos

This picture is of the actor Michael Rodgers playing the role of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. It was created by the still photographer Chaz Boulton as a modern day teaser copy of the famous Burns original picture by the painter Naismith.

This picture was shot in the very place Robert Burns frequented, the local pub of Mauchline, called Posie Nancies. Here Michael Rodgers, in the historical room of the pub, which remains the same as it did in the 1790's.

This photo was chosen for the A4 poster because it seemed to sum up the film. Here Lucy Russell plays Jean Armour, the wife of Robert Burns. In the coming weeks, with the discovery of these lost pictures I will be revisiting them to explain how the film crew embarked on recreating the 1790's on 35mm.

UN Security Council is dodging the moral question

The UN Security Council are still mulling over a way forward on Syria. In the meantime 300 people have been killed there this week. The moral question still remains that the Geneva Convention is not being implemented there.

The ambush and subsequent death of Chief of the Red Cross of Idlib area of Syria, Dr Abed Razq Jebairo, marks a sinister turn in the events of the Syrian Revolution. It is not likely given the call by the head of the Syrian Free Army for the implementation of Geneva Convention safety zones that his forces would have accomplished such an act of war violation. It therefore falls on the supporters of the Assad regime to take a long hard look at the direction they are moving towards in a country where the absence of the protection of the Red Cross Community exists. Such an event must also be considered very seriously by the international community because their commitment to the Geneva Convention is a stake here. If they fail to come to the aid of innocent civilians killed by this Regime, they are saying that International Law is of no importance. They are also saying that short term political goals of security, wealth and vested interests are more important than peoples lives. It is little wonder that almost every state in the world is experiencing unrest from it's people because current reigning politicians are failing to address principles enshrined in the Charter of Human Rights. It is no longer good enough for politicians just to caretake their own interests. While in power, they must seek ways of addressing the serious problems effecting their people and then try to solve them. Where a conclave of tyranny exists, the spirit of democracy in countries where representatives are elected, can not give the excuse that Human Rights of All is not their responsiblity. Nor can they say that the Geneva Convention is only for one country or one race, but it should be for all people where ever they live on this increasingly failing planet. For a politician to renage on this principle is to betray humanity.

Therefore when it comes to the UN Security council it can not ignore the violations of the Red Cross which amounts to gross war crimes. If they don't view this in that light then they are failing the Geneva Convention's protection of civilians and they are demeaning it to the status of a scrap of paper. It is little wonder that the people of the World are on mass rejecting the stewardship of their Leaders who seem incapable of supporting their aspirations.

It is also not surprising that the Syrian populace have begun a campaign to have the right to self defense in the absence of Geneva Convention Common Law being implemented by their Government or anyone else for that matter. However if the international Community orchestrates the abandonment of the Syrian people in favour of power politics their leaders are sowing the seeds of their own demise because in underestimating the moral code of the common populace they are sealing the fate of their own destruction.

Better then to uphold the Geneva Convention in ALL cirumstances than make it a scrap of paper.