Coming to a cinema near you next month will be an Islington dog, who will join actors on screen in a short production which will be shown at the BFI London Film Festival.
Museum of Austerity, a production by the National Theatre and English Touring Theatre, will star Kin - a seven-year-old Japanese Akita - in the role of beloved dog to a dying disabled benefit claimant.
The film piece invites audiences to contemplate the human impact of austerity.
Owner Robert Stuhldreer, 60, is an experienced dog trainer for screen and theatre from Holloway whose dogs have appeared in numerous works, including segments for the BBC.
Describing Kin’s performance in Museum of Austerity, Robert said: “She was astounding for the theatre people, they were amazed she could do it all in one take and the director Sacha Wares was very grateful to Kin for her calm professional presence.”
Kin is important to Stuhldreer’s life because she also performs a dual role as a care dog, alerting him to his impending seizures.
He said: “Her detection rate of my epileptic fits is 100 per cent. She communicates the impending danger with three clear signals to make sure I am not caught by surprise and can prepare so I don’t break any bones.”
The London Film Festival runs from 6-17 October.
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