DEVON-born actress Caroline Corrie has made an impressive debut as a film director with Shalborne and there are two screenings at Honiton’s Beehive on Saturday 8th February, at 3.30pm and 7.30pm.

The versatile actress, who trained at RADA, has not only written and directed this debut feature film, she also designed the costumes and sets – and she plays the leading role.

Shalbornew tells the story of Helen Bartlett, a courageous woman who rebels against the repressive Edwardian society of her time. In 1905, a letter from Tzar Nicholas to Lord Bartlett recounts the Bloody Sunday massacre in Saint Petersburg. This becomes the catalyst for Helen’s rebellion against her oppressive husband. Risking everything, she leaves her marital home, pushing her sick father in a wooden flower cart.

She meets Lord Shalborne who offers her shelter on his estate, but when Shalborne unwittingly invests in her husband’s corrupt schemes, Helen once again becomes a pawn in a gentlemen’s game and finds that courage may not be enough to overcome the patriarchy of her time.

Filmed in Devon, Shalbornis Caroline’s first feature film. It was was awarded Best Foreign Feature at the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto in July 2024 and has been enjoying a sell-out tour of Devon cinemas. Described as a “visual treat” by the American film-maker, writer and film critic Kevin Mayer, he described it as “the most audacious and accomplished calling card I have seen in years”.

Caroline graduated from the University of Birmingham with a first class honours degree in Drama and Theatre Arts. She was a founding member of Labyrinth Theatre, an award-winning, London-based, physical theatre company.