THE DOG SOLDIER

Logline

In the early 1980s, two teenage friends race around the countryside wilfully drawing attention to themselves in a customised Volkswagen Beetle to make the police show interest while searching for the perfect hilltop CB Radio signal.

Director’s Notes

Currently being written by  Rob Perrett, Dog Soldier is  nostalgic, anarchic comedy short film inspired by Rob Perrett’s teenage years in the 1980s and the friendship he developed with a young man known only by his Citizens Band radio handle The Dog Soldier.

At the centre of the story is a customised Volkswagen Beetle, bright red with white wings boot and bonnet and an exposed rear engine and an extraordinarily long upright chrome tailpipe rising into the air. Its interior was stripped back and extremely basic except for a CB Radio with a six-foot magnetic CB aerial on the roof that clattered against low bridges and trees as the pair tore through the Wiltshire countryside at high speed, searching for distant voices across the airwaves and policeman to annoy.

The story is not just about classic teenage reckless energy, it will be about friendship, hopes and Dreams in a world long before, smoking in public places was banned, new seat belt laws, mobile phones and social media.  The only distant communication to other humans was by letter or through a phone box and then came CB and crackling radio signals from hilltops adventures began climbing into a ridiculous car.

Intended as the final short film in Rob Perrett’s current collection, Dog Soldier will revisit an important formative period in Rob’s life before he started working in the Theatre. Two young men, one unforgettable car and a friendship that briefly lived with the recurring question, “Who wants to live forever?”

The script for Dog Soldier is being developed as a short film for the festival circuit and is planned to be Rob Perrett’s swansong.

(The imagery on this page is AI-generated and presented as artistic impressions, created to communicate the characters, period, atmosphere and intended visual direction of the project. It should not be regarded as final production imagery.)

 

A vintage red Volkswagen Beetle car parked on a rural road with fields and trees in the background, under a cloudy sky. The image is the cover of a short film titled 'The Dog Soldier' by Rob Perrett.