This
is a story which has fascinated me since I first saw David HELFGOTT performing
in 1986. I had seen a tiny newspaper story about David, who was appearing
in concert that night. I felt it was something really important and that
I had to go and see him. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but when David
sat down and started to play he quite simply transported the room and I
was utterly captivated. After the concert I went to see David and Gillian
and told them that I was a filmmaker and would love to make a film based
on David’s life.
| They, of course, said:" Well, who the hell are you?". It took a year for me to create a relationship of trust and goodwill with them but I persevered because I thought it was wonderful that someone could go through a very tortuous and quite chaotic life and come out the other side in this remarkable relationship, very eccentric but still a brilliant performer. In that contradiction I felt lay a marvellous story. Moreover, as a character David is a person who is not driven by a need to control events, and yet who paradoxically has the power to stop the world in its tracks. |
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I
wrote the first draft of the script myself in the late 80s and it wasn’t
until 1990, after another two or three drafts, that I asked Jan SARDI,
who had been my script editor on SEBASTIAN AND THE SPARROW to come in and
work with me. He brought enormous skill and talent to bear. SHINE is a
story about the power of love to both destroy and redeem. It is the emotional
current which underscores the drama, with the film exploring areas of human
experience that we are all touched by. I believe that an audience wants
to be taken on an emotional journey and that’s what I attempted to do.
Ultimately this is a story of a winner, an unlikely hero who nonetheless
achieves the one thing we all desire: he finds his own place in the world
and someone with whom to share life, love and music. His story is very
uplifting-and utterly compelling.