Lost & Found

Created by Michael van der Put, The Pitch 2019

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Description

Lost & Found is a story about two brothers; Theo, an amateur fighter on the verge of championship glory and Leon, his younger sibling; a talented footballer who squandered his promise.

We start on the night of Theo’s big fight. His mum and girlfriend have come to witness his potential triumph, but Leon is running late. Theo wins the championship and in celebration calls for his mum and girlfriend to join him in the ring - but they’re not there. Leon has got into a fight of his own and is now in A&E.

Still carrying the championship belt Theo faces his battered and bruised younger brother. Leon wakes up and seeing the belt whispers two words; You Won.

From there we see how the void between success and failure is poisoning the well of their relationship. Towards the end of the film Leon does something which unintentionally distracts Theo at the wrong moment in the ring and in our final scene it’s Theo who ends up in hospital.

With his jaw broken and unable to speak, Theo can only listen as Leon tries to do the talking for the both of them.

Biblical Connection

Theo and Leon are directly inspired by the brothers in the parable of The Prodigal Son; which Jesus tells in the book of Luke. For me this story speaks to a common struggle we all face; how do we find our place in the world? Where do we seek our personal validation? With Leon we hope to carry the arc through from the parable of the younger brother getting “lost” in order to gain a true sense of “home”; with Theo we want to explore the anger and resentment that can come from loving someone who is holding you back. A sense of entitlement and jealousy to echo the older brother’s reaction when the “lost” son returns. Our biggest question mark when it comes to the adaptation involves the father in the story. The “fight” genre is full of stereotypes when it comes to absent fathers, competitive fathers, drunken fathers - so if I make it the adaptation classes I’ll be keen to look at this element of the parable closely to examine WHAT the father truly represents.