VISION

Approached by a young writer from Derry who wanted to promote her first published book in an online magazine I run (Bout Yeh), the first thing that peaked my interest about The Boy Who Saw in Colours was learning Lauren Robinson had been repped by J K Rowling’s literary agency who had set up a publishing deal for her book with Simon and Schuster – alerting me to the story’s potential for international success as a feature film.

Bored by anything generic, my attention was also hooked by the book’s unique story and standalone visual style, following the journey of a 12 year old boy growing up with Synesthesia in Nazi Germany, where his uniquely wired synapses allow him to see, taste and physically feel his emotions – leading me to the realisation that I’d discovered feature film gold.

A semi-surreal coming of age story, The Boy Who Saw in Colours will also allow reflection on how our innate instincts to fit in, or stay safe, can be easily duped by megalomaniacs who then lead us to do terrible things.

Taking our audience to a place they think they know, we then turn things on their head as this young painter’s Synesthesia enhanced fascination with the brand and posturing of things Third Reich turns to horror as his condition abandons him when he sees the abuse of his kind (gay prisoners being shipped to a death camp) – leaving Josef even more exposed to the horrors of war without his cerebral spirit guide.

Josef’s Pilgrim’s Progress, through an increasingly dreamlike fantasy world where his development is affected by the good and the bad who come in to his orbit, ends with his sensory escape as his Synesthesia returns to a shell-shocked and war blinded Josef and presents him with a fantastic imagined new world (honed from Josef’s paintings made on his journey) where, perhaps slipping into insanity, he is unhindered by the traumatic horrors of his past.

ABOUT A YOUNG BOY with a psychological condition that presents his world to him as person-specific coloured auras around those he has feelings for, who sees lightning bolt flashes that give him small electric shocks when he experiences turmoil, and where giant single coloured bulbous floating triangles and cartoon-like hallucinations reflect his emotions to things he sees or hears (did we mention he feels the physical pain of others), Josef’s Nazi Germany based World War Two coming-of-age story is unlike anything seen in a feature film before.

To say I am humbled with the trust placed in me by the book’s author and excited as I develop it into something that is mine, would be an understatement.

– STEPHEN S T BRADLEY, screenwriter director

SYNOPSIS

Germany, 1939. Twelve year old Josef sits in a field, painting a surreal landscape on paper, accompanied by the sounds of a ranting speech by Adolf Hitler coming from a radio sitting nearby.

Athletic and with Aryan looks, and to keep them safe, Josef and his younger brother, Tomas, are given to the Gestapo by their parents and conscripted into Hitler Youth school, Inland.

At Inland, the brothers are given Aryan surnames and told their German mother and Jewish father have been executed for treason.

On hearing this, Josef’s Synaesthesia, an ability to taste sound and see emotions as colours, starts to plague him.

Tomas excels in Aryan ways, while Josef opposes them, putting pressure on their relationship.

Befriending fellow ragtag students, The Nobodies, Josef connects with their tragic backstories and joins in the group’s rebellious ways.

With fellow student and love interest, Rouvon, Josef secretly listens to allied broadcasts on a radio in a cabin in the woods, confirming Josef’s assumption he is being taught lies and propaganda.

Out of jealousy, Tomas reports Josef and Rouvon’s radio outings, resulting in Josef’s friend being sent to the front lines and never seen again by Josef.

Seeing terrified men wearing pink star armbands being shipped to a death camp initiates Josef’s move out of his dreams and into the real world, when he sees a boy of a similar age to him in the truck.

Trying to save the men, by blocking passage of the cattle truck they are in, Josef is sent to the Western Front where he kills for the first time, an equally young allied soldier.

Josef returns to Inland to discover many of his fellow students have been killed in action.

When American troops arrive at the school, students and Nazis attack the soldiers, as Josef races through the pandemonium to find his brother Tomas.

Trapped beneath fallen beams in his school’s gymnasium, Josef hears the cries of boys from his school being executed by allied troops.

Tomas throws a hand grenade towards his comrade’s attackers, which falls short and explodes near Josef.

Blinded by the explosion, Josef is rescued by allied soldiers, before being taken to a prison camp and verbally and physically abused.

Befriending Josef, a young American doctor and drug addict sells Josef through his black market dealer to Dominik and Dorothea Müller who, as they are above the government age limit to adopt, will pay any price for a child to call their own.

In his new home in a seaside village in Germany, distracted by new smells, sounds and feelings, a blind Josef learns to see and paint again.

As his past terrors catch up with him, Josef rushes headlong towards insanity.

Years later, Tomas arrives unannounced at the Müller’s home. Passionately greeting his brother, Josef’s trajectory is guided by Tomas into the arms of their parents, Ben and Lisette – initiating a sudden return of Josef’s Synesthesia that welcomes him into a wonderful cartoon world developed in his head from paintings he made during his time surviving Nazi Germany.

LIGHTING AND COLOUR PALETTE

Soft and muted, production design will contrast the shiny and new (Reich branding, uniforms and master race world view) with the increasingly grim realities as poverty and fear (of the unknown) seep into German society as the Third Reich crumbles.