Mike Downey

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Guy X

Guy X

1979: Qangattarsa - Top Secret US Military Hospital - The Vietnam war ended four years ago. Reagan has just announced his intention to stand for President with George Bush as his running mate on a ticket of "Peace through Strength".

The U.S. military kicks into action with a huge injection of finance and the U.S.S.R is about to lose the cold war. Meanwhile on Qangattarsa military base, Rudy Spruance is lost. Dropped off in the middle of nowhere in the frozen wastes of the Arctic. No one comes. The Army doesn’t make mistakes. As he comes round in an Army hospital that doesn’t officially exist, Rudy understands what it is to be on the sharp end of a ‘small clerical error’. Rudy joined up to escape a little prison time for burglary. His fellow soldiers are a rag-tag bunch of misfits and eccentrics who seem to have been on the base for a considerable time. Rudy is determined to get off the base. Until he meets Sergeant Irene Teale - beautiful, intelligent and most importantly, sane. Unfortunately, she’s the Colonel’s girlfriend. Then Rudy discovers the secret of The Wing: a hospice for American casualties from Woolwrap’s maverick raids in the Vietnam War. Guy X is an ex-Vet who comes out of his coma whenever Rudy talks to him. As a bond forms between them, Guy X charges Rudy with telling the story of the Wing to the outside world. As Colonel Woolwrap begins to suspect Rudy’s love for Irene, and his interest in The Wing, he grows more and more ruthless towards his protégé. And as the Stark Raving Dark of the permanent Arctic night begins to descend, the atmosphere at the base lurches from benign boredom to frantic insanity. The fate of Qangattarsa’s patients becomes increasingly doubtful, and Rudy realises he must risk all to save himself and the people he now loves. A biting black comedy in the tradition of ‘Catch 22’ and ‘M*A*S*H’, with a smattering of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ thrown in for good measure.

Awards

  • Best Achievement in Production, British Independent Film Awards, London, UK, 2005
  • Best Actor and Best Director, Taormina International Film Festival, Messina, Sicily, 2005
Guy X