A short film centred around an intense phone call between a control room firefighter and a distressed mother who is trapped in a burning house with her sons is hoping to pick up a BAFTA award on Sunday.
The film, which highlights the difficulties and challenges the emergency services face when answering distressing calls, was part-funded by the Fire Brigades Union who advised the film makers throughout the production process.
Operator was written and directed by Caroline Bartleet and features Kate Dickie of Game of Thrones fame as the operator, and Vicky McClure (This is England 1986) as Gemma, the trapped mother. The film reaches a point of nail-biting tension as Gemma is talked to safety as she waits for the fire brigade.
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “We are very pleased indeed that this important film is up for a BAFTA. Operator is a fantastic illustration of the skills and professionalism of control room firefighters and of the absolutely critical role they play in getting victims of fire to safety until fire crews arrive on the scene.
“The fire and rescue service is effectively being dismantled by this government, and we hope that this film will help to show that more cuts to firefighter jobs including control room staff will without a doubt put public safety at risk. We are honoured to have been involved with the making of this film.”
Between 2011 and 2015 control room firefighter jobs were cut by almost 20 per cent, which means that 372 of these critical jobs were lost. More cuts are expected up until 2020.
Operator has been shown at film festivals throughout the world, and has been nominated for a short film award at the British Film Institute London Film Festival. Operator, which was also funded by money raised on crowd funding network ‘Kickstarter’, will be shown in cinemas around the country with the BAFTA Shorts Tour until April 2016.
Operator Trailer from Operator Short Film on Vimeo.
