It’s been a heck of a year for Ben Whishaw, between a hefty set of roles in Cloud Atlas (which UK audiences will have to wait until February 22 to see) and a little movie called Skyfall. And that’s without mentioning the return of superb small-screen drama The Hour. For his next job, he’s landed a role in low-budget pic Lilting.

The title does not refer to kids sent into a sugary rage by tropical fruit drink Lilt. Instead, Hong Khaou has written and will direct a sensitive tale about people struggling with the language barrier.

Lilting will follow a Chinese mother (Cheng Pei Pei) grieving for the untimely death of her son. He’d been her translator and support system in the UK after they arrived and now she’s stranded.

But she bonds with his ex-boyfriend (Whishaw), a man she only thought was his roommate. Despite their many differences, they form an understanding and help each other deal with the loss.

Khaou has won funding from micro-budget movie percolator Microwave, which also provided the backing for Ben Drew’s Ill Manors.

Aside from the aforementioned Cloud Atlas, Whishaw will next be seen in Terry Gilliam’s The Zero Theorem and has been rumoured to be taking the role of hacker Lurker in Steven Spielberg’s Robopocalypse adaptation.