Winner of the 2001 Heartland Film Festival Award, THE WAR BRIDE is based on the true story of Lily (Anna Friel, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM), a young London girl who marries Charlie (Aden Young), a Canadian serviceman, during WWII. It’s the height of the 1940 blitz, and Lily and her best friend Sophie (Julie Cox) work as seamstresses in a small shop in the East End. One night at the local dance hall, they meet and fall madly in love with a pair of Canadian soldiers. Charlie fascinates Lily with stories of his family’s huge "John-Wayne-style ranch" on the Canadian Prairies "near Holly-wood." Passionate romance, a quick marriage and the birth of a baby girl create a world of happiness that is ruined when Charlie is sent to the front and Lily and her newborn baby must travel to Canada to live with her new in-laws. All is not as she imagined, however, and the "dream farm" Charlie promised her proves to be little more than a scratch-dirt farm inhabited by Charlie’s cold-hearted mother (Brenda Fricker, MY LEFT FOOT) and sister (Molly Parker, SUNSHINE, LAST WEDDING).

Lily, possessed of feisty spirit and charm, faces the daunting challenge of winning over the resentful community of Spring Hill and surviving the bleakness of her isolation until Charlie returns. THE WAR BRIDE is a beautifully eloquent film and genuinely affecting love story featuring the luminous Anna Friel who gives one of the most appealing performances seen in any film this year.