A Mysterious Case

[steepholm]

My mother's maiden name was Isobel Bowman, not a particularly common one (in that spelling). So she was rather taken aback today to be told by a friend of the existence of a film titled Stolen: the Mysterious Disappearance of Isobel Bowman (2010). Here's the trailer...

It's about right for period, too, and the grandfather's mysterious memoirs are of course intriguing - but where can I find the film for which this is but a tantalising teaser? IMDb tells me little other than that it is written and directed by one "David Thring", an obvious pseudonym, not to say anagram. It works out as:

"Dr Night - a vid..."

Comments

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

:D What fun - tracking down an unknown, mysteriously named, film! Possible lead: to my eye, that house (sandstone, salt damp, verandah) looks very South australian. The vegetation does, too - somewhere rural, but not too far from adelaide.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

It's definitely Australia (that's the only other nugget IMDb yields), but I'll take your word for the state. Life is full of mystery!

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

South Australia is also supported by the other few videos uploaded by the same YT account, all of them from five years ago and nothing since.

I wonder whether it was a prospective trailer for a film that wasn't greenlit into production, after poking Charlotte Rose Hamlyn's Vimeo account and IMDb listing. (Not, apparently, Charlotte Hamlyn the ABC presenter in Perth.)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I hope you can find out more about it.

[sue-bursztynski.livejournal.com]

Well, it was only made a few years ago. Why not find one of the participants and email them to ask? It might be fun. I wouldn't be surprised about the trailer for something never made - I once put in a proposal for a children's book about historical freaks and medical curiosities. The publishers liked the proposal but couldn't "sell" it to Scholastic Book Club, which more or less decides what gets published for children because publishers need their money. However, you can still see the title and even ISBN floating around the Internet, to this day!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Prompted by this suggestion, I dug a bit further and found Mr Thring's website, where the whole film can be seen (it's only 17 minutes long). Isobel Bowman has been exiled to rural South Australia for the duration much as my mother, her contemporary, found herself evacuated to Aberystwyth. But thereafter their paths chillingly diverge...