Debt will be paid when Mull film sells, says movie boss
An eerie movie shot on Mull makes it to cinema screens this November – despite some of the crew still waiting for wages, writes Kathie Griffiths.
Film boss Karim Tshibangu, who is behind the elevated horror thriller, Shepherd, this week said he would pay out ‘whatever is outstanding’ once the film’s sales agents paid him.
Mr Tshibangu already apologised in The Oban Times in 2019 for unpaid wages. Among those waiting at that time were a number of islanders and businesses. Some of the extras, location assistants and bills were paid and others received part of their money at the time, but there were still some who received no wages at all.
One Mull man who worked on the shoot said the film’s release date was certainly news to him and he suspected to ‘everyone else concerned’ on the island, adding that as far as he knew ‘nobody has been paid a penny since’ the last Oban Times story.
It was previously claimed online that Mr Tshibangu’s production company Castle Valley Films owed in excess of £10,000 on Mull alone.
The wrangle started when an unhappy film crew took raw footage and camera equipment hostage on the last day of the eight-week shoot that included a £250,000 fake cottage being built – then dismantled. The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union (BECTU) got involved.
When The Oban Times asked Mr Tshibangu this week if wages and bills had since been settled on the island, he replied: ‘There’s an agreement with the crew that, now that the film is with sales agents, as soon as they pay me I pay the crew whatever is outstanding. They all know and agree with that.’
Shepherd weaves a nerve-jangling tale about a distraught widower who moves to a remote island to start a new life looking after sheep, but when strange things start happening to him he is unsure whether his mind is playing tricks or if they are real. Award-winning actors Greta Scacchi and Game of Thrones’s Kate Dickie are big names in the cast.
Speaking about the film, writer and director Russell Owen said: ‘Shepherd has been a labour of love and I’m extremely thrilled audiences will be able to experience it where it was designed for – the big screen.’
Mr Tshibangu said he would be happy to screen the film on Mull and Oban.