SYNOPSIS

A feature-length, comedy-drama about unconventional friendships.

A mischievous disabled girl absconds to London to find love and opportunity, but finds an unlikely outcome in her life when she hooks-up with a washed-up male prostitute.

Alice Gardner (Samantha Renke) is a young woman living with brittle bones resulting in a life lacking in romance, sex and something much deeper. Desperate to change her dull existence and achieve her aims, she escapes the suburbs to find opportunities in the big bad city of London and reconnects with a gay crowd from happier times. But instead of falling on her feet, or head over heels in love, she ends up being sucked into a life of decadence and drugs.

After a crazy all-night party, she finds herself lonely and unsatisfied so orders in a male escort, Trojan Rocks (DeObia Oparei) in an attempt to satisfy her sexual hunger. But he doesn’t turn out to be what she expected, in more ways than one, and the situation becomes more complex when a troubled and unwanted past catches up with Alice.

ABOUT THE FILM

Little Devil is a British indi film which picked up several awards at the 2014 Los Angeles Diversity Film Festival.
It stars Samantha Renke and DeObia Oparei.

To our knowledge it is the first British film to have a disabled actress in a debut lead role and gain multiple accolades.

Little Devil came about after its creator, TV producer, Max Barber, was looking for an idea for his first feature, beyond his LGBT short films. That opportunity came when a young disabled wannabe actress, Samantha Renke, took the brave steps of leaving her small town in Lancashire and moved to London to pursue an almost impossible dream of becoming an actress.

Samantha and & Max met at a rather debauch and crazy party in East London and instantly struck up a fertile working relationship. Seeing great potential in the charismatic nature of Samantha, Max called upon his writing collaborator, Abraham Papcoasta. Inspired, they both got to work on a screenplay that would really showcase this feisty young woman, while also re-aligning the usual down-beat perspective about disability – and give it a humorous and heartfelt spin instead.

Abraham and Max came up with a rollicking tale about a calculating disabled girl, Alice Gardener, driven by a mission in life that brings her to a crossroads in her destiny, ironically culminating at a rather debauch party in East London. The script was loosely based on many elements of Samantha’s real experiences in dating with a disability and navigating a new life in a big bad city.

Using a mixture of crowd funding, private finance and UK Film Tax Credit, Max and his co-producers raised a very modest budget, but one that could deliver a character driven, heart-felt story.

The screenplay of Little Devil was put into pre-production in the summer of 2012, and during casting, the team bagged a fantastic co-star for Samantha in the form of Hollywood actor, DeObia Oparei (Thunderbirds, Dredd, Game of Thrones, Independence Day: Resurgence). DeObia, a London born actor himself, took on the role after being won over by the charm of the story and radical casting of his leading lady.

Filming kicked off during the summer of 2012. The production team shot on a micro-budget with a small crew and kept logistics contained to a few key locations in and around London; with the London Olympic Games that year forming a backdrop to some of the films scenes.

Post Production ran right through into 2013 with editor, John Whitehead, cutting the film, and music group, Mutiny UK, providing the films cool clubbing sound track.

The following year the movie made some tentative steps onto the film festival circuit and was picked by My Production Ltd after Little Devil’s awards in Los Angeles sparked attention.

Since then, Samantha has certainly taken some big strides on the path to success, with numerous appearances in pop promos, commercials, fund raising campaigns and TV news reports on disability awareness. She is currently represented by Louise Dyson at VisABLE People.

Samantha and Max are currently developing more projects together beyond Little Devil and there is certainly more, comedy, tragedy and naughtiness to come – so watch this space!

Little Devil is currently distributed through My Production Ltd on Amazon.

BUY / WATCH RATED 15 VERSION ON AMAZON

BUY / WATCH UN-CUT RATED 18 VERSION ON DISTRIFY