BAFTA-nominated actress Andrea Riseborough, known for her roles in Brighton Rock and Made In Dagenham, stars as Sarah, the Welsh wife of a farmer who is missing, believed to have gone underground into the WWII British resistance movement, in Amit Gutpa's directorial debut.
The role is a far cry from her much-publicised part as Wallis Simpson in Madonna's forthcoming W.E. In Resistance, her character is to be found rounding up sheep in a mens' coat tied up with string, instead of indulging in cocktails and ball gowns, Simpson-style.
The film, based on the 2007 novel by Owen Sheers, also stars Tom Wlaschiha (Valkyrie, Brideshead Revisited) as Wolfram Albrecht, the commander of the German platoon which comes to the remote Welsh valley and Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon, The Damned United) as Atkins, an undercover officer recruiting for the resistance.
The film's blurb reads:
Autumn 1944: D-Day has failed, Britain is under Nazi occupation.
Sarah Lewis, a 26-year-old farmer's wife, awakes one morning to find that her husband has disappeared along with all the men in the valley. Assuming they have joined the Resistance, the women of this tiny community pull together, taking on the running of the farms, and wait, desperate for news. A German patrol arrives in the valley, the purpose of its mission a mystery. When a severe winter forces the two groups into co-operation, Sarah begins an acquaintance with the patrol's commanding officer, Albrecht. Cut off from the surrounding war, the lines between collaboration, duty, occupation and survival become blurred.
RESISTANCE is out on Friday 25th November