hendra

In January, Ben Watt teamed up with friend and acclaimed Irish film-maker and critic Mark Cousins ('The Story of Film: an Odyssey') to find a new talent to make a short film for the title-track for Watt's new solo album, 'Hendra' - his first for thirty-one years.After running a treatment competition, the winning script came from London-based screenwriter and Slow Cinema devotee, Rahim Moledina.Filmed in east London on a shoestring budget - and inspired by the lyrics of Watt's simple folk song about the dreams of his late sister, a rural postmistress and shopkeeper - the film, directed by Moledina himself, unsentimentally yet tenderly transposes the action and depicts a day in the life of an Asian shopkeeper.Cousins was soon calling it a 'mini-masterpiece' - high praise indeed from a man who has made one of the most celebrated documentaries on the history of cinema - the fifteen-hour epic 'The Story of Film: An Odyssey'.

'Hendra' is taken from Watt's upcoming album of the same name - in his own words 'a folk-rock album in an electronic age' - due out on his own new imprint, Unmade Road through Caroline on Apr 29.

Song written and sung by Ben Watt
Film written and directed by Rahim Moledina
Filmed and Edited by Alex Oliver
Produced and Colour Graded by Sammy Patterson
An Unmade Road Film