Film: Echo
Director: Andy Salamonczyk
Writer: Andy Salamonczyk
Starring: Maneek Chatha, Anita Ramdharry
On a cold Sunday morning, a teenager and her mum share a rare walk to the shop.
In a new interview on Blazing Minds ahead of the Southend Film Festival, I got a chance to ask Writer-Director Andy Salamonczyk a few questions about his film ‘Echo‘
You can watch Echo at the Southend Film Festival on Sunday 7th June at 12:30hrs as part of the MOSTLY MADE IN SOUTHENDPART ONE.
Q. Your film Echo has been selected to play at the Southend Film Festival. Can you tell us what we
can expect from the film?
A. Echo is a very simple film, exploring the loving relationship between a mum and her teenage daughter. I wanted the dialogue to be very natural, very real. I don’t want to spoil anything else about the film!
Q. What were your inspirations when writing the script?
A. I run a production company with fellow filmmaker Anderson West called Jeruty Films, and he’s been telling me for a while to make a short film – it’s been ten years since I’ve directed a narrative piece, and my wife was expecting our second child in March, so I aimed to make a very simple short before the baby was born. I gave myself a challenge of basing the idea around a walk to the shop, and building the story and the characters from there. Without spoiling the ending, I work with a lot of different charities, and one charity gave me the inspiration for what lies beneath the chat between our two characters.
Q. Did you have any of the cast in mind for the characters when writing the script?
A. Young actress Maneek Chatha is someone my producer worked with previously, and so she was in my mind for the role of Maya from the very beginning. Maneek very quickly understood the depths and complexities of her character and was so easy to work with on the day. Maya’s mum is played by Anita Ramdharry, who we found through auditions – again, a very easy and natural actress to work with, making my job easy. We only had 7 hours to capture the whole film, so we had to shoot quickly, and thankfully they were stars on the day!
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. The walk to the shop is all one shot . Both 1917 (2019) and Adolescence (2025) used this technique. I think it allows the viewer to get lost in a conversation, and in the dynamics of a relationship between two people. I was very keen to try this, and DP Ben Halford quickly took these ideas on board and produced his magic!
I’ve always loved the films of Shane Meadows, and the dialogue in his work is always very natural. I wanted to see if I could do something similar.
Q. Did you make any changes from the original script during filming?
A. Just a couple of cultural references, nothing too big!
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. I think the first time I saw Anita and Maneek do a run through of the main scene where we see the relationship unfold – seeing how much they prepared for that scene, taking on board everything we worked on in rehearsals. It’s always nice seeing something you’ve written down being performed like that. We only rehearsed on Zoom which isn’t the easiest for actors.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. Not really!
Q. What makes Echo stand out as something different?
A. It’s a moment in time, showing a real conversation, with a sadness to it that reveals itself at the end. It highlights a societal problem that isn’t known by a huge amount of people.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. This problem is a big issue facing the children of today, but it doesn’t get the attention it needs. The film ends with a statistic that will make you gasp. Go to the festival and watch it and you will see!
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
A. I’m developing a short film around another parent-child relationship. It’s about a troubled and distant father taking his son to his first football match, reliving the ghosts of his past along the way.
Yes, that is two films now about parenting – can you tell I’ve got two children?
Q. If someone was looking to write and direct their own film what advice would you give them?
A. There’s so much advice out there – but I think it’s really important to trust your instincts, write what you know and be prepared to know you won’t always love the project. There’s always a moment where I love an idea I’ve come up with, and doubt creeps in along the way and you end up hating it in bits, and thinking it’s no good. And if it’s no good? That’s great. I’ve learned a ton more from my failures than my successes.
You can watch Echo at the Southend Film Festival on Sunday 7th June at 12:30hrs as part of the MOSTLY MADE IN SOUTHENDPART ONE.
You can find out more about the production company Jeruty Films here
You can find out more about the festival and purchase tickets here.
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!