RICHARD MADDEN RACES
He Leads the BAFTA-Winning Short Group B
Richard Madden, best known for his role of Robb Stark in Game of Thrones, leads Group B, a moving short film about rally racing. It’s a sport that involves dangerous off-road driving with a lack of crowd control and powerful cars. They use rugged terrain as two drivers battle with themselves and the road around them.
Madden plays Shane Hunter, a rally racer with post-traumatic stress disorder, who tries to re-enter rally racing after experiencing trauma from his last encounter with the sport. Hunter experiences a lull of the senses while speaking with a therapist at the film’s beginning. He is depressed and unsure of his role in this world after experiencing a fatal crash the last time he drove. The film is a difficult watch and plays on the senses as he returns to racing.
This film was a “Royal Television Society Award Winner in 2016 and picked up nominations for a Student Academy Award and the AFI Fest Grand Jury Prize.” Moreover, the director, Nick Rowland himself, drew on his own experience as a rally driver. Rowland has directed several shows and movies, including a feature titled “Calm with Horses,” which premiered at TIFF and screened at the BFI London Film Festival. It has been picked up for distribution and is now available to buy or rent on YouTube.
Group B shows the struggle Hunter experiences as a driver–there is a lack of dialogue in the film, which adds to the contemplative feel of the project. The audience must sit there and meditate on Hunter’s emotional issues. The film was released in 2015 but set in 1986– it embraces the real tension one feels after rally racing, which takes excellent control and extreme mental focus. Madden gives a star performance with quiet moments of thought mixed with prolific dialogue, which plunges the audience into the tense world of the film.
