Having been introduced by a mutual friend in the Autumn of 2002, former investment banker and internationally trusted Renaissance businessman, Olivier Castagne, and critically acclaimed and award-winning comedian, playwright and filmmaker, Michael O'Bernicia, formed a business partnership with the aim of founding an independent British film and television studio with its own distribution networks.
Shortly afterwards, they founded an independent development, production and sales company called UWP and utilised the Cannes Film Festival in May 2003 to launch the start-up company's first slate of movies by networking with top industry financiers, sales agents and distributors.
Within just a year, UWP returned to La Croisette with a number one hit film and an exciting slate of low-mid budget indie movies in various states of development, four of which were set to star Danish actor, Kim Bodnia, whose gritty, low budget, action and art-house films were largely unknown in the English-speaking territories, until THE GOOD COP became the 'buzz title' of the second week of the Cannes Market in 2004.
UWP'S 2004-2006 PRODUCTION SLATE
THE GOOD COP | Budget – GBP£900,000 | Cast – Kim Bodnia, Nicolas Coster-Waldau.
NEFARIOUS | Budget – GBP£1,600,000 | Cast – Kim Bodnia, Tygo Gernandt.
BOBBY | Budget – US$30,000,000 | Cast – Anthony Hopkins, Sharon Stone.
WORLD'S MAYOR | Budget US$30,000,000 | Cast – Kim Bodnia, Julianne Moore.
THE GOOD COP (2004)
THE GOOD COP, which Michael O'Bernicia co-produced and UWP launched at the Cannes Market 2004, is a Danish-UK action comedy starring Danish acting legend, Kim Bodnia, with whom UWP made two films before he went on to become internationally famous for his stand-out performances in THE BRIDGE, ROSEWATER, KILLING EVE and THE WITCHER.
The fast-moving film, which also starred Nicolas Coster-Waldau before he was world famous for starring in GAME OF THRONES, went straight to number one at the Danish box office, generating in excess of ÂŁ1 million in its first two weeks on release in 175 cinemas, so UWP's debut feature had already recouped its production and distribution costs by the time THE GOOD COP played at the busiest screening of the second week of the market.
With several full and half page ads in Screen International and Variety throughout, as well as a huge poster at the entrance of the market, UWP's ambitious marketing campaign attracted the plaudits of some major North American and European players. Two weeks after Olivier, Michael and their committed team returned home from Cannes, the German-speaking rights for the film were sold to Kinowelt for $100,000 – the second largest price ever paid by a German buyer for a Danish film at the time.
In the aftermath of UWP's Cannes triumph, Olivier and Michael put together ÂŁ125 million in private equity to finance their slate of eight films, four of which were set to star Kim Bodnia. The other four movies already had A list talent attached, with Olivier and Michael playing financing executive producer roles and Michael taking responsibility for composing the budgets and sales estimates for each project.
NEFARIOUS (2005/2024)
With an original cast that featured Oscar winner, Christopher Walken and BAFTA winners Douglas Henshall, Rufus Sewell, Phil Daniels, Kate Ashfield and Joanne Whalley, as well as Kim Bodnia, NEFARIOUS was initially slated to begin shooting on a budget of $9.5 million in November 2004.
However, despite having raised an irrevocable Letter of Credit from a AAA-rated Swiss bank, the financial institution which had previously contracted to cash-flow the instrument in the summer of 2004 pulled out of the deal and UWP were forced to enter production on a largely deferred budget of GBPÂŁ1.64 million, in the late winter and early spring of 2005.
Whilst almost every actor pulled out when they heard the finance had fallen through, Kim Bodnia agreed to play the role which Walken would have played for a deferred fee.
A new ensemble cast was then built around the Danish superstar in his first English language role, who collectively delivered an array of electrifying performances, which are punctuated with high production values, stunning locations and a cool retro soundtrack.
In spite of the undeniable quality of the final cut of the movie, it was not released until December 2024, since when it has already picked up two award wins and multiple Official Selections to compete in the latter stages of some of the best international online film festivals across the world.
Michael's long-awaited first feature as director has already been described by one film critic as being reminiscent of the works of Mike Hodges, Winding Refn, Antonioni, Bergman and Bruce Robinson.
Whilst all of the performances by the cast have been hailed as genuinely impressive, the effortlessly charismatic performance of Kim Bodnia in his first English language role has been singled out as perhaps the best of his career.
BOBBY (2006)
Despite being honestly told by the film's US producer in the spring of 2004 that the project had been mired in 'development hell' for three years, Michael read the script for BOBBY and told Olivier that it had “Oscars written all over it”. He then cold pitched the film to a reliable international sales agent and his US lawyer, who were both instrumental in raising production finance, which they did solely because they felt compelled by Michael's passionate predictions: that BOBBY would make millions more than it would cost to make worldwide and get nominated for at least three Oscars.
However, Olivier and Michael remain uncredited for the essential executive producer roles they played in rescuing the film from 'development hell' and all because Michael told the writer-director, Emilio Estevez, that he needed to shave twenty minutes off the running time to win Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best Film.
When the film didn't win any of the awards it got nominated for, as predicted, both the LA and NY critics agreed that the movie would have bagged all three Oscars if it wasn't twenty minutes too long. BOBBY nevertheless went on to generate tens of millions more than it cost to make at the international box office.
However, Michael and Olivier foresaw in 2005 that the forthcoming Digital Revolution would radically alter the very fabric of the film and television industries and decided to pursue other projects in the interim period, to avert the possibility of suffering the kind of losses which bankrupted so many companies when digital killed DVD sales, without which film finance became significantly harder to raise.
For the purposes of which they knew that it would become necessary to take control of the means of developing, financing, distributing and marketing their film projects, which the Digital Revolution technologically enabled at an affordable cost.
Four years after UWP ceased trading, Anarcho-Film Productions [A-FP] was formed in August 2009, for the purposes of developing, producing and distributing high quality independent feature films and media content, using the anarcho-filmmaking strategies we developed to take advantage of the Digital Revolution.
A-FP took its international bow at the Cannes Market in May 2015, where our first film, The Great British Mortgage Swindle [TGBMS], was launched. Once completed, the hard-hitting feature went on to become one of the highest rated British documentaries on Amazon Prime, following a limited UK theatrical release in late 2018.
TGBMS has been invited to compete in several prestigious film festivals across the world, along with Michael O'Bernicia's second documentary feature, The Three Faced Terrorist [TTFT], which has already been described as “the most censored film in history”, following its world premiere on A-FP's VOD platform as a two part mini-series during the spring of 2022, since when it has been remastered into a documentary feature film that is set to premiere on A-FP Premium in the Autumn of 2025, before screening at festivals around the world.
In late 2024, A-FP launched Kim Bodnia's long-awaited English language feature film debut, Nefarious, at numerous international film festivals. Thus far, the film has been Officially Selected to compete in the latter stages of a dozen popular events and has already won two prizes, including the much sought-after IndieFEST Award of Recognition for the outstanding achievement of the producer, writer, editor and director, Michael O'Bernicia.
In the latest review by a professional film critic, Michael's long-awaited first feature film as director has been compared to the work of Mike Hodges, Winding Refn, Bruce Robinson, Antonioni and Bergman, which has caused a surge of interest in what will be his fourth feature as director, The Geordie Sicilian.
Spring 2025 saw the launch of A-FP Media Group's brand new distribution platform, A-FP PREMIUM, which aims to provide producers and film lovers alike an experience which simply wasn't possible until now. Twenty years ago, the entire film industry was nervously anticipating the devastating effect that the Digital Revolution would go on to have upon the ability of producers to raise production finance, which in 2005 was still almost entirely dependent upon projected DVD revenues and distribution pre-sales.
When the DVD market crumbled to dust at the end of that decade, it became ten times harder to get a film made, to make a profit or break even, in the fortunate event a movie did find distribution, than it was before free platforms like YouTube killed the Home Video star.
Nevertheless, A-FP slowly emerged from that revolution as a Virtual Film Studio, which specialises in the development, production, sales, distribution and marketing of critically-acclaimed, award-winning content, as well as exclusively providing A-FP's curated collection of hundreds of free Classic Films for subscribers as of Autumn 2025.
THE GREAT BRITISH MORTGAGE SWINDLE (2018)
After acquiring a broadcast quality digital camera, audio equipment and editing facilities and founding a new sales, production and distribution vehicle called A-FP, Michael started making a documentary feature film about mortgage fraud and the brutality of eviction by void court order in the summer of 2009, shortly after he began working with producing partner and co-founder of A-FP, Michael O'Deira.
TGBMS tells the story of the two Michaels and two working class families who take on the might of the UK banks, both in and out of court, culminating in an historic high court victory, when Michael O'Bernicia proved that virtually every UK mortgage has been fraudulently registered by the Land Registry.
Nine years in the making, the harrowing yet uplifting film was released in selected UK cinemas during the autumn of 2018, then on DVD and digital platforms, including Amazon Prime, on which it quickly became one of the highest rated British documentaries of all time.
THE THREE FACED TERRORIST is Michael O'Bernicia's hard hitting documentary about the Christchurch mosque shootings, which allegedly took place on the 15th of March 2019 and led to a series of government acts which severely curtailed the unalienable rights that were previously guaranteed by the New Zealand constitution.
Within days of the seemingly horrifying series of events that took place at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch Jacinda Ardern's government had criminalized every weapon that was featured in a purported Facebook livestream of the attacks, as well passing a statute which censored the film and other related content, creating a maximum prison sentence for Kiwi citizens of ten years in prison just for watching it in the privacy of their own homes or sharing a link to it. Formerly a heavily censored two part internet TV mini-series, the world premiere of this remastered shocking documentary feature is set to take place on A-FP Premium in 2025.