tea shop asylum
Feature Film
Set in 1996, Tea Shop Asylum, is a romantic black comedy based on the remarkable true experiences of successful Yugoslavian actor Rad Lazar. This extremely funny and surreal story concerns Vlad, ex soldier and asylum seeker from the Balkans, who is awaiting a new start with his family when his past catches up with him and leads to an escalating struggle to contain a bizarre and chaotic chain of events.
Co-written by director David Skynner and Rad Lazar, the script was supported by the UK Film Council Premiere Fund to the tune of a pilot and this trailer is derived from that material.
This film was budgeted at £2.5M and 85% funded, then our sales agent refused to help secure a small pre-sale, and it collapsed.
Synopsis
Vlad, a charismatic, ex-soldier and his family, have escaped the chaos left by the Yugoslav war and now pass tedious days in the sleepy English seaside town of Hastings, while they await naturalisation and the chance to start a new life.
It would seem obvious, that to speed this process, Vlad should keep his head down, avoid trouble and do nothing to draw attention to himself.
It’s reasonable to conclude therefore, that it was ill advised of him to take the illegal job in the psychiatric hospital where he met Dorothy, the therapist; even if he then fell in love with her.
Given this blossoming relationship, it was sheer madness to then agree to kill her patient, the depressed philosophy professor and multiple failed suicide, Trevor.
Blowing up the seagulls was a blunder, no matter how irritating they were and any fool knows that an American Bison doesn’t make a good lawnmower.
The mock execution to blackmail Baz, the builder, into smuggling Vlad’s dead grandfather back to Bosnia, economy class, was another unforced lapse of good sense.
But the greatest gaffe of all, was building the two ton statue of Pontius Pilate out of dental amalgam, in order to win a prize and finance a debt of honour with the greatest pastry chef in Eastern Europe.
He should have known better than to do any of these things.
He risked being pitched back into the nightmare he’d only just escaped, but the life force is strong, the need to love is irresistible and the requirement to find a place and acceptance in the world is overwhelming.