The Five Weekends I Come Home - FEATURE FILM

Aim

To help us complete production of a feature film exploring addiction amongst young people in the South East of England.

The Five Weekends I Come Home follows a young man in his mid-twenties, Josh. He’s left his hometown in Kent behind, but when his best friend, Sam, dies of a drug overdose, Josh finds himself reunited with his childhood school-group. The untimely passing forces the group to face what they are doing with their lives, and prompts them to consider how they are spending this defining year of their lives. 

We follow Josh as he connects with former school theatre geek, turned Eastenders star, Mia. They might not have being close in the past, but the find common ground in wanting something more out of life and make a pact to each take more professional risks. However, despite the pair’s plans to build a brighter future for themselves, Josh is preoccupied with the events that brought him to this place; these are the events we see play out in The Five Weekends I Come Home.

Director's Statement

This may be a film that sprawls out in theme as well as time but primarily, at it’s heart, The Five Weekends I Come Home is a story about addiction, and how it affects the victim as well as the people who surround them.

Over the course of the narrative we see addiction from multiple points of view: how it can affect day to day life, how it causes relationships to break down, and the consequences it can have, be they big or small, dramatic or banal. Set firmly in present day Kent, the geographical gateway to the UK, we see how the garden of England has succumbed to massive drug related issues. 

Vitally, the film explores the fallout of when a lack of opportunity meets an abundance of boredom. The issue of young people turning to drugs, be it recreationally or as an alternative illicit career, is all too real and under-discussed. This film is intended as a real conversation starter.

Written from personal experience, The Five Weekends I Come Home is intended to speak to those that have languished, as well as those still waiting to come home.

The Statistics

The locality of this film is also hugely important. A lot of our crew are from Kent, and we feel like it’s the perfect place to tell that story. Kent has succumbed to massive drug-related issues, largely due to the prominence of county lines. Kent is a place with less opportunity due to its lack of city presence, and that also means there’s less to do for kids and boredom can strike. These factors combined lead to a lot of young people using drugs, either using them as a way to pass time, or selling them in order to make more money that they ever could legally in Kent. The BBC reported in November 2024 that “More than 80,000 people in Kent are thought to be taking illegal drugs” according to official figures”, which is a dramatic figure when the population of the entire county is under 2 million. 

This film isn’t looking to shame or somehow provide an answer to how to solve these issues. Instead, we want to use this film to start a dialogue and highlight that the issue exists. Even though Kent is a small place, we believe the story can apply to anyone who grew up in suburban towns, much like the way that Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird is set in Sacramento, but is seen as a shared experience for everyone around the world.

The Team

Tias Comber - Director/Writer/Producer

Tias Comber is looking to step into his first feature after the ongoing success of his first two short films - both are now playing at film festivals across the UK. ‘Landscam’, is currently submitted for various film festivals but recently played at an event by 3to1 films as part of the BFI’s Ridley Scott celebration month, where it played as part of a collection of films which included a short film produced by Cate Blanchett and Sienna Miller, before going on to be announced as a semi-finalist at Margate Film Festival. His film before that, ‘Influenza’, will be playing at Folkestone Film Festival in November 2025. He is also a part of the BFI’s Emerging Producer’s lab for their South East branch.

Zoe Molloy - Writer

Zoe Molloy is a graduate of the UEA’s creative writing MA, and is onboard to write the October section, utilising her skills in writing about love on-the-edge, which is something touched on in her upcoming stage-play which will be performed at the Norwich theatre’s Stage 2 in 2026.

Tommy Chedumbrum - Writer/Producer

Tommy Chedumbrum is also a graduate of the UEA’s creative writing MA, and is a co-founder of RedLine Stories alongside Tias. He was a producer on Landscam and currently has several projects in development including a documentary short about the volunteers behind “Driving Ukraine”, a charity that organises convoys of supplies and vehicles into a country at war, travelling from Oxfordshire to Lviv, Ukraine.

Alfie Percival & Harvey Goodyear - Directors of Photography

Directors in their own right, the duo have been working on many projects in the videography space and were DoP’s on Tias’ previous short Landscam. Two pairs of experienced hands, the duo have amassed hundreds of thousands of views across digital platforms and are two of the best up-and-coming young talents in the space. 

Cast

Todd Bell - 'Josh'

Todd Bell joins the project as its leading man. The De Niro to Tias’ Scorsese, Todd has appeared in both Influenza and Landscam, starring in the latter to prove his ability to lead a cast and elevate anything he’s a part of. Todd has featured in multiple big productions including Billy Elliott on the stage, and has worked on feature films before such as 'The Irish Angel' and TV Series including 'Edeavour', whilst he recently took his own show to Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and was able to put on the show back in London following its success, leading to an OFFIE nomination for best Edinburgh Fringe show.

Gracie Barlow - 'Mia'

Another frequent collaborator, Gracie Barlow also appeared in Influenza and Landscam, starring in the former. Playing Ella in Influenza, Gracie carried every shot, demonstrating her ability to command the frame and proving that she deserves the chance to play a major role in a much larger project. Off screen she has performed in multiple stage productions, including a sold-out show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2024 (Tweeds). She is also a published author, and is developing her own short film with Tias as the producer.

Will Antenbring - 'Sam'

Will is an NYT and Italia Conti-trained actor, graduating in 2022. He appeared opposite Lennie James in Mr Loverman in winter 2024. With his television debut  out on BBC 1, he is set to star as England captain Harry Kane in the BBC adaptation of James Graham's hugely successful play Dear England, shooting summer 2025 for a 2026 BBC1/iPlayer release. Will is a Kent born actor with ties to the region.

WHERE THE MONEY GOES

The Five Weekends I Come Home is a micro-budget feature film with a carefully allocated budget. With the cast and crew aligned in thinking that any budget should be seen on screen, you can rest assured that any proceeds raised will go toward essential costs, including:

- equipment, including camera

- cast/crew's travel and expenses

- locations

- eventual festival submission

WHY WE NEED YOUR HELP

So far, through a mixture of self-funding and grants from funders, we have been able to enter production on almost 50% of the film. As early career filmmakers, making a feature film would be a monumental achievement, and would put us in a very small bracket of filmmakers, worldwide, who have made a feature. With the help of your donations, we would not only be able to complete the rest of production, but establish ourselves in a highly competitive industry.

Areas in the south, outside of London, are often under-represented in the arts, with most funding heading to stories in the capital, or other regions. This leaves places like Kent with little-to-no representation in terms of stories being shown on the big screen. With the need to address the issues of the region in a way which speaks to the rest of the world, by donating to this project, you're helping give a voice to those outside of mainstream, and showing that there is more to this country than just London.

RISKS AND REWARDS

With such an ambitious project, comes risks. But worst case scenarios have been thought out, and there are contingency plans in place that will make the project risk free and want to highlight the thought that has gone into it.

We are shooting across five blocks over the course of 2026, with one already completed, and a second also being completed by the end of April. The long shoot time allows for longer time to react to anything going wrong. For example, if amember of the crew can’t do one of the upcoming blocks, we will operate similarly to a TV Show. Season running tv series will often use multiple department heads and have rotating heads of departments, and this works as long as the creative crew stays the same. If an actor suddenly becomes completely unavailable we also do grant ourself the time schedule to adjust the story, which is built to be fluid and adapt to all issues. This also will mitigate for any crew fatigue or drop off, and allow us to rotate members of the crew across each of the shoots. 

Biggest on the list of risks is the creative response that the film is deemed a failure and subsequently doesn’t receive distribution. While this is a goal we are working towards, it is ultimately the only phase that we cannot solely account for. All we can do is make sure we’re in the best possible position. 

We have all the right people involved, and have a clear vision of the story we’re trying to tell. To our minds, if we make a feature "no matter what" there is no way it can be deemed a failure. We care deeply about the project and hold ourselves to high creative standards. Ultimately, very few people are ever in the position to make a feature film, so we would consider the completion of the feature as a success that will help set our careers up, no matter what.

Alongside any rewards that may come from the project, is the importance of such a film and the issues it seeks to address. T5WICH touches on many themes, but at its heart, it is a story about addiction: how addiction affects not only the victim, but those who surround them. Seeing someone you care about succumb to addiction is a difficult situation, you want to understand them, but you might also have to navigate intrusive thoughts to shame or abandon them. It is a complex journey that can weigh heavy on friends and family, and in a way, this film will be a familiar tale to many. 

Films about addiction are often pieces made by artists who have lost someone, but we have many people we want to show this story to before it’s too late. We’re asking the vitally important question of why these stories always have to be a retrospective of someone who is now gone. The non-linear narrative allows a look into the worst-case scenario future, whilst being able to jump back and see the steps that lead to such a horrible, avoidable conclusion.

We appreciate your consideration and thank you for your support.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 23rd June 2026 at 4:22pm