Kirk's big screen debut, Kensuke's Kingdom, co-directed with Neil Boyle, is based on the Michael Morpurgo book of the same name, and starring Cillian Murphy, Sally Hawkins, and Ken Watanabe. Having recently completed its cinema run in the UK, Europe and South America, the film is set for a US premiere this October.
Kirk is a filmmaker who breathes cinematic magic into every project he touches – no matter whether that’s a commercial, music video, short film, or, most recently, a triple British Animation Award-winning feature.
‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ follows the adventure of Michael, a young boy who washes up on a remote island and must learn to protect its wildlife under the guidance of its only other human inhabitant – the mysterious Japanese World War II veteran, Kensuke. It’s an ecological theme that often crops up in Kirk’s portfolio. “Having lived in cities all my life, some part of my genetic memory rejects all this modernity and concrete and craves natural things.”
Its dreamy vistas have charmed international audiences, plunging them into the depths of its leafy island setting through a blend of classic, hand-drawn animation and modern 3D environments.
By the end of ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’, the viewer, too, feels the urgent need for conservation, thanks to Kirk and his co-director Neil’s thorough characterisation of each animal species, from the orangutangs right down to the insects. A bug is seen again and again caring painstakingly for her larvae; when the poachers arrive, she and her offspring are crushed underfoot, heartlessly wiped out in one stomp of a boot. “The experiment was, how do you make it so that when the poachers come to take these animals off the island, the audience feels like it's a violation, and it's actually a family being torn apart? When you set those things up and you pay them off later on, it's far more powerful emotionally.”
Dramatic yet subtle, Kirk and Neil convey such messages subliminally and wordlessly. “When we read the screenplay by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, we saw it as a silent film, essentially, which fits right into what we like to do.” Without paragraphs of exposition offering prime time for zoning out, Kirk explains, “you pull the audience in, because they have to work it out as they're watching.”
Practically every detail of the film has been carefully considered, and Kirk and Neil’s efforts have paid off: its first screening brought its most important critic – Sir Michael himself – to happy tears. “He said it's his favourite adaptation, and that now, when he thinks of ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’, he doesn't think of his book, but of this film. So that's the ultimate tribute.”
At the end of the day, however, it’s when satisfying their own desires as viewers that magic is made. “The films we really appreciated growing up were the ones that didn't talk down to the audience. So when it became our turn to make movies, we wanted to do the same thing for young people and adults. We're just making what we want to see, and there's some universality in that.”
Check out Kirk's work here, including the trailer for 'Kensuke's Kingdom', his award winning commercials for ITV's Dancing on Ice, and his previous BFI backed short 'Junk'.