MARTIN SCORSESE - SCORSESE'S PROTEGE TO PREMIERE FILM AT LONDON FILM FESTIVAL

Celina Murgo, a protege of the legendary Martin Scorsese, is to premiere her second feature A Week Alone at the Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival in October.

Murga, 35, recently spent seven weeks working alongside the Goodfellas director on the set of his new film Shutter Island, as part of the Rolex Mentor & Protege Arts Initiative, which pairs artistic masters with young talent.

And following her stay with the masterly Italian-American, A Week Alone will screen in London with a 'Martin Scorsese presents' disclaimer.

Scorsese chose Argentinean Murga as his protege as she is "a real filmmaker"

"She has an eye, she has a sense of character and place and how they interact. What I was looking for [as a mentor] was an exchange, a conversation. That's what I found with Celina," he explained.

Murga said it was "a huge privilege to be able to observe and learn in close-up from a master craftsman of the cinema".

"It is a chance in a lifetime."

A Week Alone is a portrait of the new Argentinean bourgeoisie seen through the eyes of children, starring a group of actors aged seven to 14.

Without mothers or fathers nearby for a week, the kids are free to roam and impose their chaotic rules in the comfort of a gated community, a luxurious prison from which no one tries to escape. Not even when an outsider arrives among them.

Tickets for the Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival are available now.