The Movie Squad’s film Merek premiered at the Empire Cinema in Sandwich on Friday, starring pupils from Sandwich Technology School.

The Movie Squad is an annual film school held every summer for the new Year 7 pupils in an effort to introduce them to the school and help make friends.

Film school co-ordinator Adrian Smith said: “At the beginning the children are quiet and towards the end of the first week the personalities come out. By the end, all of them make friends and bond.

“We start with a group of strangers and we end up like a family.”

This year, director Bruce Partleton and Mr Smith helped the pupils to create a medieval drama focusing on the son of a witch who was burnt at the stake by the village.

Merek has been isolated from his village and the film explores the challenges of standing up to peer pressure.

The premiere was a great success and also showed Making of Merek, a documentary about how the feature film was made.

It shows the group coming up against challenges including lots of heavy rain which halted filming for days. It also showed the effort of all the people behind the scenes who helped to build the set, and participated in archery, pottery, cooking, camp building, falconry, calligraphy and a medieval banquet.

Mr Partleton said: “Our hard work all came together, we created what we intended to create. The kids were great, the staff were amazing. “I want to do this again and make it bigger and bigger.”

Mr Partleton explained he would love to take something as small and unfunded as a film like this to a film festival in the hope of receiving awards.

The group were also supported by Bob Martin and members of the medieval band Rough Musicke.

For more information visit the website at www.moviesquad.co.uk.