TURNED TOWARDS THE SUN
AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME FROM 4TH MAY
Nominated
Grierson Award for Best Documentary, BFI London Film Festival
Turned Towards The Sun, the astonishing true-life story of British writer and poet Michael ‘Micky’ Burn MC, will be released on DVD for the first time on May 4th. Turned Towards The Sun first premiered in the UK at the BFI London Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grierson Award for Best Documentary, and is now being released on DVD to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Micky Burn, M.C., has a story like no other. Born in Mayfair in 1912, his father worked for the Royal family. He became the lover of the communist spy Guy Burgess, and would initially be taken in by Nazism, expressing an admiration for Hitler. In 1942, he took part in a daring commando assault on the fortified French port of St Nazaire, where he was captured, and he ended the war a POW in Colditz. He would latterly become a committed Marxist and be credited with saving the life of Audrey Hepburn.
American director Greg Olliver, who has previously documented the life of rock star Lemmy, started Turned Towards the Sun in 2008, revisiting significant events and places in Burn’s life. He saw Turned Towards the Sun as a last chance to look back on the long, fulfilling life of a man with a personal history that wove and wound itself around the defining moments of the twentieth century.
Burn is presented as a candid and witty raconteur, with a sharp mind and vivid recollections. He died in 2010, which leaves Turned Towards the Sun as a fitting eulogy to a remarkable man who lived through extraordinary times. In his story, we see our history and ourselves.