The Bastard Sword

A fighter named Tias is searching for a magical sword to help his friends widow from despair. However he is not the only one searching for it. A Thief named Mars desires the sword for less honourable means. Together they must form an unlikely alliance and seek the help from a mysterious hermit who is the only one who knows where it is.

However the sword can only be claimed by one of them.

• Xander Phillips as Tias, A "farmboy" turned fighter and main protagonist of the story.
• Martyn Eade as Mars, A thief and the main antagonist of the story.
• Seth Easterbrook as Ulysses , A mysterious hermit in the forest.
• Danielle Thorpe as Nyx, a pixie and friend of Ulysses.
• Chris Wilson as Viktor, Mars's right hand man and fellow Thief.
• James McClusky as Lars, one of Mars's men and the youngest of their pack.
• Gemma Comber as Liliya. Liliya is a mourning over the loss of her lover and is the reason Tias wants the power of the sword.
• Chris Comber as Nikolai, He is the love interest of Liliya and friend of Tias.

The Director of the film Eveshka Ghost wrote the script for The Bastard Sword, whilst finishing up on his previous film "The Granary". The tagline "A Grande Adventure" actually came from a joke between him and Phillips whilst filming some of the final scenes. Xander Recalls:

"We had just finished The Granary and Ghost and I were finishing off the “Knight scenes.”

The two of us were taking some pictures of the knight costume whilst we still had the opportunity.

Whilst Eveshka was lighting me up I took of my helmet and extended my arm like I was performing a dramatic Shakespearean play and I said in an old medieval accent

"Make me look like a grande warrior."

Ghost started laughing and he said "What The Hell Is a Grande Warrior?"

To which I responded "I don't know but make me look like one."

Ghost continued to chuckle whilst taking the photographs and he finally said "Is it original? You didn't steal it from anywhere did you?"

"I said no not at all It just came off the tongue I thought it fit".

Later on after the photoshoot Ghost and I kept giggling and he said "If it's definitely original I think I know where we can use that."

I said "Yeah?"

Ghost then said "The thing is I've had this idea for a script i'm writing called The Bastard Sword, it's going to be a medieval fantasy and there's going to be a bad guy called (he scruffs up his face) Mars".[5]

Ghost's original ending of the film differed significantly in the script. The initial story focuses more on the relationship between Ulysses and Nyx rather than Ulysses and Tias. However the true ending is still a secret known only by those who had the script.[6][7]

Ashdown Forest was one of the film's locations, famously known for the setting of A.A Milne's .Winnie The Pooh Novels. The rest was filmed in a private location in West Sussex.[8]

The budget was extremely minimal, so minimal that the cinema licence had to be paid for via a kickstarter campaign. The film cost approximately £2000 and made £3660 all of which was put towards its release.[8]

• The Bastard Sword at IMDb
• The Bastard Sword on Rotten Tomatoes
• The Bastard Sword on Shot on What?