“The Ballad of Wallis Island” (2025) was in the making for over a decade. In 2007, the British short film “The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island,” directed by James Griffiths, and written by Tim Key and Tom Basden (who also played the two leading roles) had a famous folk singer play a private concert in a remote island for an eccentric lottery winner. Now, in 2025, the writer-director trio has developed a feature film based on the same short film with a shorter title.

The movie can be best described through an event that epitomizes the fictional ‘Wallis Island.’ When Herb McGwyer visits the only grocery store on the island for a bag of rice, to rectify the water damage on his phone, he does not get that. Instead, he leaves the store with a rice pudding. Like the titular island, Tim Key and Tom Basden’s screenplay circumvents instant...