User:Phinn/sandbox

Samarkand is a forthcoming drama film starring Tom Hardy as a British special forces soldier struggling to cope with the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder.

The film's title refers to James Elroy Flecker's play, Hassan: The Story of Hassan of Bagdad and How He Came to Make the Golden Journey to Samarkand, an excerpt of which is inscribed at the base of the Special Air Service's regimental clock tower at Stirling Lines in Hereford alongside the names of the SAS fallen.

Samarkand marks the feature film debut of Greg Williams. It is cowritten and produced by his brother Olly Williams. Williams' 2011 short film, Sergeant Slaughter, My Big Brother, also stars Tom Hardy as an aspiring French Foreign Legionnaire.

Plot
An SAS soldier (Tom Hardy) returns home to Britain from operational duty in the Middle East only to struggle to reintegrate into society whilst suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder.

Cast
Tom Hardy

Development
Hardy and Olly Williams travelled to Afghanistan in July 2012 in order to conduct research for the film. Their trip included visits to Camp Phoenix near Kabul, an Afghan prison and the Sherpur Cantonment, a British military cemetery.