THREE teenage filmmakers will have their documentary premiered at a prestigious London cinema next month.

Abingdon School pupils Matthew Copson, Tom Bateman and William McDowell, all 17, have made a hard-hitting documentary about the life of a struggling basketball player in Moldova.

Their 30-minute work, One Foot on the Ground, will be shown to audiences at the National Film Theatre on March 12.

It follows the fortunes of 23 year-old basketball player Andrei Zelenetchii, who has a masters degree in finance but is working on a building site as there are no other jobs for him.

Abingdon School has ties with the country, and has visited it each year since 2003.

The pupils hope the film will promote the country and raise awareness of Agape, a charity that helps young people there.

Sound engineer Will McDowell, from Shiplake, said: “Arriving in Moldova with the intention of making a film made me see and feel things that I may not have picked up on otherwise.

“A sense of the constant financial struggles and political tensions was everywhere, both in the landscape and the people.

“At the same time, when I met Andrei and the other people we talked to in the making of the film, I was struck by their desire to strike out, to fight for a future and to be heard.

“If we have given just one person a voice in this film, then we’ve succeeded.”

The teenagers are all members of the Abingdon Film Unit, based at the school. The unit is an extra-curricular activity for pupils to make their own short films under the guidance of a team of industry professionals.

The director of drama and master in charge of the film unit, Jeremy Taylor, said: “My first experience of Moldova came with the visit to Abingdon in 2007 of a party of Moldovan students.

“I discovered that more than half the children in Moldova grow up with at least one parent working abroad, and in many cases, both.

“I was shocked at my ignorance of a country that, whilst it sits on the edge of the European community, seems so far removed from our familiar world with all its opportunities.

“I began to think there was a story here that needed to be told.”

The film will be shown at 3.30pm and 4.30pm.

Among the audiences will be the UK’s ambassador to Moldova, Keith Shannon, old Abingdonian and comedian, writer and broadcaster Tony Hawks, who wrote Playing the Moldovans at Tennis, and Labour peer Lord Dubs, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Moldov