Piercing Brightness

Preston has the highest incidence of UFO sightings and also the fastest-growing Chinese population in Britain, and it's here that renowned mixed-media artist Shezad Dawood has set PIERCING BRIGHTNESS, his directorial debut. Two youngsters, Jiang and Shin, land a spacecraft outside the Lancashire town on a mission to bring home their forebears, the 'Glorious 100', who were sent to study our planet many millennia ago. But they soon discover that many of the 100 have become corrupted by their unwitting hosts, losing sight of their original purpose and in turn influencing the local population to sometimes surprising ends. As they are pursued by a sinister bike gang their task is made even more difficult, until Dawood's offbeat sci-fi drama reaches its climax atop Preston's brutalist bus station.