A SIMPLE tale of a kind-hearted mute man who falls in love with a blind woman has been shown as part of an international film festival in Cannes.

Inspired by Charlie Chaplin’s 1931 classic City Lights in which the little tramp tries to win the affection of Virginia Cherrill’s blind flower-seller, Charlie was written and produced by up and coming Salisbury filmmaker Shanoor Ullah.

And the short film was chosen to be shown at the fifth Artisan Festival International held at the end of May.

Ullah, who runs his own production company UC Productions in the city, said: “It is a seven-minute short film, a romantic comedy about a mute guy who sees a girl that he likes but communicating with her is difficult because she is blind.

“It got a really good reaction, and it was the experience of a lifetime. I got to meet so many people and so many distributors – it’s hard to put into words what it was like.”

Ullah, 24, has already tasted success in his film career, after his first production was chosen to be broadcast by the BBC last year.

He worked on Shine Bright while still studying for his MA in film producing at the University of Glamorgan, making it for the BT Big Voice Film Festival Go Set education programme.

Shine Bright, which deals with homophobic bullying, won a silver award in the competition, the judges for which included Lord Puttnam and the Bridget Jones films producer Jonathan Cavendish.

Charlie is now set to be distributed to selected cinemas in the USA and Ullah hopes it will also be shown in Salisbury.