Oxford director Vicky Jewson tells Katherine MacAlister about life and her latest film, Born of War

Vicky Jewson has come out of her shell since the last time we met, post Lady Godiva, and is more confident.

She’s stopped being apologetic, learnt to accept the praise and deal with the hype surrounding her most recent film Born Of War. Her future is bright.

Back then the critics were less than kind about her work, a hair shirt until now, because her new film, by all accounts, is brilliant.

“I don’t have an ego. I’m just glad that Born of War is now my calling card, even if it has been a steep learning curve,” the 29 year old from Oxford says.

Vicky could have given up of course, but the critics just fuelled her continuing passion for film. She spent the next five years writing, financing and directing Born Of War with her now husband Rupert Whittaker, and it has already been sold to 16 countries around the world, the UK being next.

“It’s so hard to put the last five years into words,” Vicky says. “Lady Godiva was a romance story, which was really out of character for me.

“When I was younger I was a total tomboy. I loved watching James Bond and WW2 movies with my dad and always wanted to make films. So after Lady Godiva it really knocked my confidence because I was so young and I wasn’t allowed to learn from my mistakes.

“Luckily, life then emulated art when I met Rupert and I had my own romance story. He allows me to be a better film-maker,” she says.

The pair then wrote Born Of War about a female protagonist in an action movie – “not one in a catsuit with superpowers, but someone like you and me; a real woman put in an impossible situation to see how she deals with it: fight or flight? That’s what this film is about.”

Raising the money themselves and setting a budget of £300,000, which people actually laughed at, there were a few setbacks – they could only raise £200,000 so started shooting anyway, their Moroccon location folded but Jordan stepped in instead. Vicky had to beg, borrow and steal locations, props, jets and actors to make the film, but she did it.

“We knew we could. There were never any grey areas for me. I always knew exactly what I wanted and how to go about it, so despite my age, they could never say I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Editing the film took a year but selling it proved much easier than expected.

“So now here we are, back in Oxford, ready for the UK opening date and a Q&A at the UPP Cinema, before flying back to LA to begin the process of filming the next one. I’m not going to pretend it hasn’t been hard,” she adds. “But the proof was always going to be in the pudding.”

Filming at Kidlington Airport, Upper Heyford’s disused airbase, Farmoor petrol station, the Eagle Works in Jericho, Mansfield College, Carmel College and the quarry at Kirtlington, it’s also a local film in many ways.

So did she enjoy it?

“I actually hated it. It was definitely the hardest thing I have ever done. There was such a pressure after Godiva to make a good film, that I wouldn’t compromise on anything, even when we had no time or money. I had to keep filming until I’d got it right. It was relentlessly stressful and we didn’t know we’d got it right until we started editing it.”

Their next film, already written and currently being touted in Hollywood, is about a female bodyguard. “I wanted to continue the action hero trend but make it even more real,” Vicky explains. And if everything goes according to plan they could start filming this year.

Happy then? “Yes,” she smiles, “ it’s just weird, that after having to push so hard for so long, that everything is happening so easily.”

SEE IT
Born of War is released tomorrow in the UK, the DVD on May 18 and Vicky is holding a Q&A session at the Ultimate Picture Palace in Cowley Road, Oxford, on May 20.