Cul-de-sac movie is a Venice Hit

A film shot in a Birmingham cul-de-sac has received a five-minute ovation at the prestigious Venice Film festival. Nasty Neighbours, the debut feature by 33 year old Coventry based writer and director Debbie Isitt, received warm reviews at the festival.

It is based on her 1995 stage play, which had more than 100 amateur productions around the country as part of a scheme sponsored by BT. She said 'There were 1,500 people at the screening and we were thrilled at the response. Ours is probably the smallest film in the festival. Woody Allen, Martin Scorcese, Jane Campion and Mike Leigh are all showing new films here, so we were surprised so many people came to our screening."

One critic hailed the film as 'a ripping yarn from the depths of flock wallpaper suburbia', while another said 'it has terrific energy and humour'. Birmingham City Council, West midland Arts and Northern Arts all gave grants to the production, which was filmed in Quinton. Isitt was eight months pregnant during shooting, which meant she was unable to fly to Sydney with the rest of the crew to direct a short fantasy sequence.