A HARROWING new charity film which aims to break the silence surrounding childhood sexual abuse has been produced by a Swindon-based studio.

Invisible Child was produced by the Wyvern Theatre-based Create Studios on behalf of London charity Transformations, and depicts a child that feels she cannot speak up about her abuse, causing her to feel invisible.

The female subject of the film is never seen as she undergoes a series of struggles at home, school and with friends with intensive special effects used to make her appear invisible.

Producer Sherylee Houssein, of Wootton Bassett Road, said the film’s concept came from real life experiences of abuse victims.

“We came up with the concept as a team, from speaking with Transformations a common thing that people who had suffered abuse said was they felt invisible, as if they were crying out for help but no-one could hear them,” she said.

“It’s a really powerful statement, even we were shocked at how it came across in the film.

“It’s about raising awareness that abuse is more widespread than ever before. People need to realise that it happens anywhere and at any time in any social circumstances and it needs to stop.”

It took a seven-month-long creative process to bring Invisible Child to life, culminating in a three day video shoot directed by Gurchetan Singh.

Filmed on location at the Old Town Gardens, the Commonweal School and the Blagrove Industrial Estate, a mix of aspiring actors and volunteers from the town made up the three-minute film’s cast.

Sherylee said the tough subject matter did not deter the actors from wanting to raise awareness.

She said: “As soon as people heard what the film was about, they were very keen to get involved.

They realise that child sexual abuse is more widespread than ever before and the people of Swindon really wanted to help.”

The final video edit has now been released online and Sherylee said it had provoked an intense emotional reaction from the crew.

“It was very hard to film something like that, it is all implied but in some ways that’s harder. When we showed it to people they were disturbed by it. It was overwhelming to watch the final version,” she said Create now hope the video will go viral and help gain one million signatures for the A Child Is Crying petition, which urges parliament to implement a system to end childhood sexual abuse.

The NSPCC estimates that one in 20 children in the UK have been a victim of sexual abuse, with one in three children not telling anyone they were abused. It is also estimated that in 90 percent of cases, the abuser was known to the child.

To sign the petition visit achildiscrying.org.uk.

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAEAsbuQe9k