Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Superbob – a postie from Peckham with special powers who can fly around the world saving people, but will be stuck with hours of paperwork afterwards.
Superbob was shot in Peckham in just three short weeks in the summer last year and had its first screening at the London Comedy Film Festival last week.
The feature-length film shot in SE15 tells the story of a down to earth superhero who is firmly planted in modern life – tied up in government red tape and crippled by social awkwardness.
The story goes that seven years ago, Robert Kenner, a mild mannered Peckham postman was struck by a meteor, bestowing him with special powers. But in this adaptation of a short film shot back in 2010, Superbob is super-stressed by all the paperwork he has to fill in and super-excited to be meeting up with a woman he met once at the library, on his day off.
Director Jon Drever lives in Peckham and when he was asked to make a film about a local hero he said in an interview with the British Film Institute: “I thought it would sort of be funny if there was a superhero who lived in Peckham and if he was just this awkward bloke it would be even funnier.”
Through a connection Jon had at the Foreign Office, he got an off-the-record chat about what it would really be like if a superhero existed in today’s world and if he was British, which is how Superbob, played by Brett Goldstein, ended up being a glorified civil servant.
Superbob, also starring Catherine Tate and Natalia Tena, will be out on general release this spring so look out for a screening at Peckhamplex from April.