Filming Begins On ‘Testament Of Youth’ Starring Alicia Vikander & Kit Harington

Principal photography begins today on the Heyday Films and BBC Films production of Vera Brittain’s iconic and Powerful, WW1 memoir, TESTAMENT OF YOUTH.

The all-star cast includes Alicia Vikander, Kit Harington, Taron Egerton, Colin Morgan, Dominic West, Emily Watson, Joanna Scanlan, Hayley Atwell, Jonathan Bailey, Alexandra Roach, and Anna Chancellor. The film is directed by James Kent and produced by David Heyman and Rosie Alison for Heyday Films.

In TESTAMENT OF YOUTH, Alicia Vikander will play the iconic writer, feminist and pacifist, Vera Brittain, and Kit Harington plays Roland Leighton, Brittain’s fiancé.  Award-winning writer Juliette Towhidi has adapted the screenplay from Brittain’s searing story of love and war, which was first published in 1933.

In Towhidi’s script Vera, irrepressible, intelligent and free-minded, overcomes the prejudices of her family and hometown to win a scholarship to Oxford. With everything to live for, she falls in love with her brother’s brilliant friend Roland Leighton as they go to University to pursue their literary dreams. But the First World War is looming and as the boys leave for the front Vera realises she cannot sit idly by as her peers fight for their country, so volunteers as a nurse and sets off for France.

GRAVITY and HARRY POTTER Producer David Heyman had this to say:

“I am thrilled and honoured to be bringing Vera Brittain’s powerful and passionate memoir of war, love and remembrance to the screen. We needed a remarkable actress to capture Vera’s range and complexity, so I’m completely delighted that the exceptional Alicia Vikander has taken on this role. And I am excited to be working with director James Kent whose sensibility is perfectly matched to Juliette Towhidi’s deeply moving script.”

TESTAMENT OF YOUTH shoots in various locations around the UK including Yorkshire, Oxford and London and we’ll bring you all the news as we get it.