Bill Nighy has been spotted out and about on the Wirral this week having joined the cast of Babak Jalali’s A Town In Nova Scotia, which began filming in and around Liverpool earlier in January.
Nighy stars as Leon, a widower living in a block of council flats in Liverpool. Makram J Khoury (Master and Margarita) plays his best friend.
The film’s synopsis reads: “His wife died recently, and his daughter Anna moved to Canada. His closest companion is his old colleague and best friend Saleh, of similar age who also lives alone on the same floor of the building.
“Leon and Saleh have been thick as thieves for years; still Leon finds it hard to talk to him about the recent plea his daughter Anna has made for him to join her and her family across the pond and start a new life in Nova Scotia.”
A Town in Nova Scotia is the fifth feature from Iranian-British director Jalali. Previous features include Radio Dreams, which won landed the Hivos Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2016, and Fremont, which premiered in Sundance in 2023, picked up a British Independent Film Award nomination and landed the director the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards in 2024.
Jalali co-wrote the film with Italian film maker and author Carolina Cavalli, who previously collaborated with Jalali on Fremont.
76-year-old Bafta winner and national treasure Nighy’s work includes Love Actually, About Time, Pirates of the Caribbean, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the recently North West-shot Quay Street/Prime Harlan Coben thriller Lazarus.
He was spotted filming on Victoria Road in New Brighton this week, as well as around Wallasey and on the town’s Promenade – part of the longest in the UK.
“A Town in Nova Scotia” is being produced by Naïma Abed and Émilie Georges for Paradise City, and Jennifer Monks for The Fold. The film is financed by BBC Film, BFI (awarding National Lottery funding), Liverpool Film Office (through the LCR Production Fund), Calculus, Hoopsa Films and Desmar.
Executive Producers are Kristin Irving for BBC Film, Ama Ampadu for the BFI, Christopher Moll for Liverpool Film Office, Sonny Gill and Peter O’Leary for Hoopsa Films, Naomi Despres and Michèle Marshall for Desmar, Brad Noel and Mariyah Dosani for Calculus. The film was developed in partnership with BBC Film.
Main image: BAFTA/Twitter
