LEON THE PIG FARMER

Following his well-received 1989 short film, “The Unkindest Cut”, Gary Sinyor received a request for a script from Eric Idle. “I wrote THE PIG FARMER as a 3 million (british pounds) film, but nobody would give us the money,” says Sinyor. Eventually, he brought the film to the screen with co-director Vadim Jean. Billing itself as “the first Jewish comedy feature to come out of Britain”, it is a perfectly silly film that revives the British tradition of broad comic farce. Leon in a nice Jewish boy from North London, who, after working for a less-than-scrupulous realtor, quits his job and begins work for his mother's catering business. While delivering food to a hospital one day he discovers that he is a product of artificial insemination. When the truth of his conception is made clear, he sets off to Yorkshire to meet the Gentile pig farmer whose sperm gave him life. As Leon heads north, the pig farmer and his wife go 200% Jewish to make Leon feel at home. Mark Cousins of the Edinburgh Film Festival states, “A funny, masterful film, its craft and sheer joy should shame more established filmmakers”. -Kit Kalfs