Filmmaker Spotlight
The Long Way Home
Directed by Jacob Lewis-Taylor
In the last days of the Great War a reluctant officer, forced into command, and an eager young soldier have their unlikely bond tested under the onslaught of a German sharpshooter. Trapped on the frontline, they must hold together a fracturing battalion, in order to hold the line.
About the Film
'The Long Way Home' - A Feature-Length Thriller set in the last days of the First World War.
1917. A small country estate in rural England. The Great War is waging half a continent away. However, when the British army begin recruiting in the nearby village; Billy Armitage, a young farm worker seizes the opportunity to enlist in the hopes of escaping his mundane existence. Meanwhile, the sheltered youngest son of the landowning family, John Hemmingway, is unwillingly conscripted to lead the newly formed 'Pal's Battalion' as its ranking officer.
Outmanned and pinned-down, the men face a desperate battle of survival, as they attempt to hold the line, awaiting the order for one final big push and the chance to return home.
Content notes: Strobing or flashing images · Graphic violence · Substance use
- Runtime
- 1 h 25 min
- Category
- Feature Film
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Year
- 2024
- Language
- English
- Aspect ratio
- 16:9
Stills
Jacob Lewis-Taylor
Jacob Lewis-Taylor has spent his life in and around the creative arts in Shropshire and the West Midlands (UK). He holds an MA in Screenwriting from the University of Falmouth and trained at Westminster Film School.
He recently completed his first feature film, 'The Long Way Home', alongside film school friends and colleagues, and has, in recent years, directed theatre with the National Theatre, staged plays at the Edinburgh Fringe and worked on a plethora of regional theatre productions.
— Director’s statement
‘You can’t send that man back…”
This line at the end of our film’s first act encapsulates the feelings that inspired the making of ‘The Long Way Home’. It is a film about war and its human consequences, but when I began developing the project at 19 years old, it was also about film school.
I made a film about pressure in the years when I began to feel it - about a crisis of confidence and impostor syndrome at the point when I felt it most acutely - and about someone's optimistic perception of the world being shattered at the point when I first began to experience the world away from home.
My small team and I made this film after being told that we couldn’t!
We could do it! We did it! Here it is. A finished film -
From me and the whole team, thank you!
Credits
- Directed by
- Jacob Lewis-Taylor
- Written by
- Julian Elcock, Jacob Lewis-Taylor, Carrie Liddell
- Produced by
- Timothy J. King
- Cinematography
- Phil Siri
- Editing
- Osian Pearson
- Production design
- Hamish Macleod
- Sound
- Jane Lo
- Music
- Aaron King
- Principal cast
- Joshua Griffiths - Billy Armitage Ben Seager - John Hemmingway Darrell Davy - Albert Wallace Harrison Hindle - Edmund Hackett Olly Giles - Richard Cartwright Marcel Hagen - Friedrich Weber Emily Bellingham - Mary Bourton James Pearson - Jack the Sapper Zoltan Adorjan - Harry the Sapper Peter Terry - Henry
— Festival history
FINALIST - Lift Off Global Network: London 2025 SPECIAL MENTION - Skopje Sunset Film Festival 2025
The Long Way Home is part of the Official Selection of the BIUFF Founding Edition 2026 — 75 films from 32 countries. See the full programme.