East End Film Festival Premiere: Ella Purnell, Georgie Henley | Access All Areas (The Fan Carpet)

The Fan Carpet's Sara Laratro spoke to Ella Purnell, Georgie Henley, Jordan Stephens, Bryn Higgins and Oliver Veysey at the London Premiere of Access All Areas at the East End Film Festival.

The feel-good, coming-of-age tale ACCESS ALL AREAS will receive its World Premiere on Friday 30th June at The Edinburgh International Film Festival followed by its London Premiere on Saturday 1st July at East End Film Festival. Directed by BAFTA-nominee Bryn Higgins from a script by Oliver Veysey, who also produces alongside Bill Curbishley, ACCESS ALL AREAS is the story of an unlikely gang of teens who run from their dysfunctional parents to an island festival to lose themselves in the crowd and find themselves in the music…

Featuring a brilliant young cast of established and up-and-coming stars, ACCESS ALL AREAS perfectly captures the youthful free spirit of the UK’s festival scene and spins it into a vibrant road trip. Set, staged and shot right in the middle of a real festival the film features a killer soundtrack, to be released on Universal, that includes everyone from Faithless, Tame Impala and Future Islands to John Holt, Royal Blood and Disclosure plus live performances from The Who and Underworld.

When hapless Heath gets caught up in Mia’s desperate bid for freedom, it catapults them and their friends on a wild road-trip through the beautiful British countryside to the Isle of Sounds festival and the greatest show on earth. Nothing goes to plan, but if they can get hold of some tickets and survive the crowds, toilets, aerial acrobats, chaos, Swedish hipsters, as well as the unwelcome appearance of their maniacal parents, it promises to be an unforgettable weekend.

Mia is brought to life by 21-year-old Ella Purnell, turning in a remarkably nuanced performance as the troubled teen. She is already a big-screen veteran after the likes of Never Let Me Go, Kick-Ass 2, Maleficent and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

Georgie Henleyplays the excitable, fun-loving party girl Nat. 22-year-old Henley was chosen against type - known to audiences since the age of 10 when she debuted as Lucy in the blockbuster Chronicles of Narnia trilogy - she’s not usually associated with characters that wind up on drunken one-night stands on a tour bus.

Edward Bluemel is Heath, the angsty hero of the story whose quest to find Kurtz shapes the events of the whole film. Bluemel was cast straight out of drama school and has since gone on to star alongside Olivia Williams and Mark Benton in ITV’s The Halcyon.

Leon – the joker of the pack who starts the film as Heath’s nerdy best friend and ends up being completely transformed by the festival - is played by 24-year-old Rizzle Kicks star Jordan Stephens. Jordan made his acting debut in E4’s 2014 drama Glue, before going on to a number of smaller roles in film and TV (including a cameo in last year’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story).

The young cast are joined by veteran British character actors Jo Hartley (Eddie The Eagle, This Is England) and Nigel Lindsay (Four Lions) as Libby and Mack, Quadrophenia legend Phil Daniels as the festival ferryman and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and X-Men star Jason Flemyng as the mythical musician Kurtz.

Brimming with colour and wistful adolescence, this intoxicating and memorable journey in to the mad, muddy magic of the British Festival revels in all the crazy things that can happen in these pop-up cities, where the rules of the real world don’t apply, and a single weekend can turn into a transformational experience.