Phil Grabsky's Blog - The Boy Mir - U.K Screenings

Well, I for one thinks the train service is pretty good in the UK...at least that's been my experience over the past week as I've bounced around doing Q&As for The Boy Mir. Last weekend was a whistle-stop to Edinburgh and York and it all worked out really well. Indeed the screenings in London before that and these ones more recently have been pretty well attended. Perhaps more importantly the film has been very well received. Everyone stays for the Q&A and there are always far more questions than time allows. It's wonderful to see how moved people are by Mir' s story and I can also see that people are thinking, realising, that Afghanistan is a more complicated story than a blunt 'Bring the Troops Back Home' slogan... Financially for us, these one-off screenings make little commercial sense - cinemas these days won't even cover your train fares (and one said to me, after a three hour journey to get there, that I could have a free biscuit with my coffee but not a cake!). But I'm glad to be doing it and I know it will work out. 100 screenings in the UK is my target...we're going to hit 50 OK but those other 50 will need a lot of ringing, emailing, pleading on out behalf...but we'll get there. Meanwhile, we have been getting lots and lots of press attention - BBC World News, CNN, BBC World TV, and lots more. Rotten Tomatoes website still has us at 100% appreciation and 100% reviews...and the film has been nominated for some more awards...so little by little... Shaoib is in Afghanistan right now and will be trying to talk to Mir...news soon I hope.