The majority of the film industry was forced to put productions on hold in March as the coronavirus pandemic spread across the world.

But one couple from Canterbury were determined to use lockdown to keep creative, and produced a Covid-19-inspired film with the help of children from as far flung as Brazil and Hong Kong.

Katerina Philippou-Curtis and Paul Curtis, of Orient Place, have been hard at work for the past three months shooting and editing What Matters, a short film which takes the pandemic to new dystopian heights.

The film imagines a world where lockdown has lasted more than two years - the virus has mutated and become all the more deadly, forcing governments across the world to take drastic action.

World leaders in this nightmarish story have categorised people based on their level of immunity, ripping the vulnerable from their families and putting them in quarantine camps.

But according to Katerina, the film finds hope in an impending uprising from children all across the world, from the UK and Britain to India and New Zealand.

The director and writer said: "I wrote the script based on something that we could physically do, just using a small amount of resources.

"I posted on my Facebook page asking if anybody wants their kids to be in this film, and I had an inbox full of messages from people from all different countries who wanted their kids to be a part of it.

"Eventually it escalated so I had to change the script, involving kids from Brazil, Hong Kong, New Zealand, America, India, and most countries in Europe."

Using the unique situation of lockdown to her advantage, Katerina asked the young actors to use their phone cameras and visit recognisable parts of their home cities, to bring the global aspect of the story to life.

The 52-year-old said: "I had to direct them online and tell them exactly what I wanted them to do.

"I had a young boy who had just turned 8 go to Berlin train station, and there was absolutely nobody around which was fascinating.

"All the kids were absolutely excellent, just really professional all the way through."

Alongside the footage taken by young people across the world, the rest of the short was filmed in the family home as well as an outside scene, using their neighbours as extras.

Paul, who worked as the director of photography, used long lenses so the paired-down crew would not have to get too close to the actors.

Katerina and Paul's son, Rafi, 12, performs the part of the main character who organises the youth uprising, as well as helping his parents out with capturing sound and other elements of production.

Also starring remotely in New York is Victoria Emslie, who has appeared in Downton Abbey, The Danish Girl and The Theory of Everything.

The husband and wife duo run Inventome, a production company which has produced films and provided visual effects for film and theatre for the past 14 years.

Despite all of their collective experience shooting and producing, both found filming in lockdown a challenging experience.

Paul said: "From a logistics point of view the biggest thing was social distancing and making sure people weren't picking up anything, so for our outdoor shoot we used a lot of wireless technology.

"When we're shooting in the house it's just the family, which is nice but also slow - it's mostly me setting everything up and sometimes Rafi helping with sound if he's not in shot."

The 50-year-old added: "People that have tended to make things in lockdown have been documentaries, whereas this is an extrapolation of what could be happening if we're not careful."

Katerina and Paul hope to have the film finished by August.

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