A NEW film about the 1930s famine in the Ukraine is to shoot in Scotland this summer.
It stars the British actor James Norton, recently seen in the McMafia TV series, who plays the Welsh journalist Gareth Jones.
Directed by Agnieszka Holland, the "politically charged" film is about the real-life journalist and his ground breaking reporting of the Holodomor, the man-made famine in 1930s Ukraine, which claimed millions of lives.
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Jones' reporting of the horror, which he issued as a press release that was published by a number of newspapers, alerted the world to the famine and international outrage and controversy.
Several scenes of the movie, also called Gareth Jones, will be shot in Edinburgh, and the movie has received £200,000 in funding from Creative Scotland, the national arts agency.
Norton will star alongside Vanessa Kirby in the movie, which WestEnd Films is selling at the Cannes film festival.
Kirby plays Ada Brooks, a New York Times reporter "who helps him uncover Russian government-led oppression."
Variety added: "Having broken the story, Jones then has to fight subsequent attempts to cover up the horrors he saw in Ukraine, meeting a young George Orwell in the process."
The film is produced by Andrea Serdaru-Barbul, who also wrote the script, alongside Polish filmmaker Klaudia Smieja.
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Robbie Allen, Senior Screen Executive at Creative Scotland said: "It’s brilliant that Gareth Jones is heading to Scotland for the next part of its shoot. "We’re proud to be supporting Scottish based co-producer Angus Lamont to realise this exciting film."
Edinburgh had a notable year in the movie world in 2017, providing the backdrop to Avengers: Infinity War, the super hero movie.
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