SYNOPSIS
Albatross. A fresh, modern-day coming-of-age tale focusing on seventeen year old force of nature Emelia (newcomer Jessica Brown Findlay) who bursts into the lives of the dysfunctional Fischer family when she is hired to work in their guest house in a sleepy town on the South Coast of England. Beth Fischer (Felicity Jones), also seventeen, is cramming for her A-Levels, in a desperate bid to escape to University, whilst dad Jonathan (Sebastian Koch), once a best-selling author, is suffering from writer’s block much to the annoyance of frustrated mum Joa (Julia Ormond) who runs the guest house and laments the promising acting career she left behind.
Emelia has been brought up by her grandparents but has a strained relationship with her GRANDPA (Peter Vaughan). She is an aspiring writer; believing she is following in the footsteps of her great-grandfather Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle. Jonathan sees promise in Emelia and begins to tutor her, as Beth becomes closer with her forthright friend and decides to take her along on a visit to Oxford University – with hilariously raucous results.
As Emelia’s confidence and free-spirit help Beth learn to enjoy life beyond studying, Emelia too is inspired by Beth’s determination and focus and she begins to see a way to break through her self-destructive tendencies. However, when Emelia and Jonathan begin an illicit affair, the girls’ friendship is threatened.
Can Emelia and Beth escape the ties of small town existence and free themselves of the Albatrosses around their necks?
