A NEW film by the Dartmoor-based Chagford Filmmaking Group will receive its UK premiere in Exeter later this month.

Sir Lanval, a micro-budget feature of an Arthurian fairytale, was shot in just fifteen days for £25,000 — a sum that would have paid for less than one second of a blockbuster.

The film is part of the Shared Legends Project, a collaboration between artists in Brittany and Devon exploring common heritage between the two regions.

Local people joined in as extras alongside professional actors in the lead roles at locations, including the historic orchard at Cotehele House and the Chateau de Suscinio in Brittany.

The haunting story of Sir Lanval was originally written by a medieval woman, Marie de France. Beginning as a simple romance between a knight and a fairy, the tale grows ever deeper, darker and more gripping.

Director Elizabeth-Jane Baldry said: 'Marie must have been a brilliant observer of human nature for she writes with such deep understanding of human nature, love and loss. The story is astonishingly contemporary which just goes to show that nothing's really changed in eight hundred years. We had such a lot of fun making it.'

The Shared Legends Project is funded by the European Union with additional funding from South West Screen and the UK Film Council.

Two other films with Dartmoor as a location will be screened the same weekend.

Peerifool is an Orkney fairytale about three little girls who outwit an ogre. The 40 minute film features Chagford children getting messy as porridge fairies.

The other film screening is a classic British silent film with live harp accompaniment.

Cottage on Dartmoor, a virtuoso piece of film making, was directed by Anthony Asquith in 1929. It tells a tale of love and revenge on the bleak landscape of Dartmoor.

This is the first performance of a new solo harp score for the film composed by Elizabeth-Jane Baldry, a concert harpist and composer from Chagford.

The films will be screened on Saturday and Sunday, March 26 and 27.

Peerifool will be shown at the Jubilee Hall, Chagford on Saturday, March 26 at 5.30pm.

Adults £5 and children free. A DVD of the film will also be released.

Cottage on Dartmoor will be also be shown at the Jubilee Hall on the Saturday at 7.30pm. All tickets are £8 — not suitable for children.

Sir Lanval will make its premiere on Sunday, March 27 at Exeter Picture House at 11am. Adults £8 and Children £5.50. Tickets are available from Sally's Newsagents in Chagford or at http://www.fairytalefilms.co.uk">www.fairytalefilms.co.uk