Love Without Walls: The cost of living film that took 13 years to make

Love Without Walls is the first feature-length film that Jane Gull (left) has written

A director has said her award-winning indie film about the cost of living - 13 years in the making - has become more relevant than she ever imagined.

Jane Gull was working with homeless people in 2011 during government austerity measures, when she first wrote a script for Love Without Walls.

The film, shot in Ms Gull's home city of Southend, hits cinema screens on Friday.

"It's about holding a mirror up to what's going on," she said.

"What I didn't realise even when we were shooting this film two years ago, is how now, I look at this film, and I think blimey, this really is a film of its time.

"I mean in years to come, when people ask what was the UK like in 2023, I think this film pretty much captures it."

In the film, Paul (Niall McNamee) and Sophie (Shana Swash) find themselves rough sleeping in Southend-on-Sea

The film has already been nominated for four National Film Awards and won Best UK Feature at the Manchester Film Festival

The film - the first feature-length that she has written - follows a young married couple in Camden, north London, who are made homeless after a series of misfortunes and the rising cost of living.

Paul (singer-songwriter Niall McNamee) and Sophie (Shana Swash, EastEnders) try their luck sofa surfing in Southend-on-Sea but end up rough sleeping.

"It tells the story of love and attempting to survive in the face of adversity," said Ms Gull.

The screenwriter was working on a feature film about the Essex witch trials in late 2019, a project still in the making, when she returned to her old script and ran it by her producer Karen Newman.

The pair decided the bleak early days of 2021 - when streets were still emptied by the UK's third enforced lockdown - was the perfect opportunity for filming.

"If we hadn't had Covid, we might not have made this film," she said.

Jane Gull said Essex's diverse scenery made it a "brilliant" filming location

Jane Gull (left) pictured with the movie leads Niall McNamee and Shana Swash

Ms Gull grew up in Rochford, near Southend, before working abroad as a professional dancer, including on cruise ships, and now lives with her husband and pet dog in South Woodford.

Most of her short films, including the only previous feature film she has directed, My Feral Heart, were filmed in south Essex.

Essex County Council set up a dedicated film office last year to encourage production companies to the patch.

Jane, from Rochford near Southend-on-Sea (pictured), enjoys how "vast" Essex's filming options are

Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston featured in the adaptation of Sarah Perry's The Essex Serpent, filmed at coastal mudflats near Colchester and Mersea Island

"It's a brilliant filming location," she said.

"We shot My Feral Heart in Rochford, Hockley and Great Stambridge, but a 10-minute drive and you're in Southend; you couldn't get two so different landscapes.

"It's so vast, you can't compare Basildon, for example, with Saffron Walden."

My Feral Heart (2016), about a young man with Down's syndrome, won 14 international film awards.

Love Without Walls has already won Best UK Feature at the Manchester Film Festival, Best UK Feature at the London Independent Film Festival and has been nominated for four National Film Awards.

Despite the film's gritty socio-political themes, Ms Gull says she is not trying to make a statement.

"You could call it political but it's really a look at humanity and how difficult life can be," she said.

References to the cashless society and the reliance on technology, such as for internet banking, she says have become more relevant since the filming.

"It's the things you take for granted when you have a place to call your home," she said.

"Homelessness can happen to anybody."

Love Without Walls premiers at cinemas across the UK from Friday, including in Ipswich, Harwich, Saffron Walden, Colchester, Chelmsford and Southend-on-Sea.