Actress Gillian Kearney is to star in a short film shot in Brighton.

Kearney, who made her name as Debbie McGrath in Brookside when she was 14 and now stars in the series Sweet Medicine, met her co-stars yesterday at Brighton Media Centre for the first rehearsal of the film, Homecoming.

Filming will begin on location in Brighton on Monday for five days.

Kearney, 31, and the other four cast members are giving their services for free.

Homecoming, which is being produced by Six Foot High Films in association with Piper Films, tells the story of a refugee family who have fled war-torn Kosovo.

Instead of being a politically-based story, it is told through the eyes of a six-year-old girl called Tadine, who misses her dog and her home.

However, behind the innocence of the child's experiences is a darker story of the events which happened in Kosovo where her father survived a massacre.

Liverpool-born Kearney plays Tadine's mother, Dashuri.

She said: "It is a really simple story and it is really beautiful."

The actress will be staying in Brighton next week for the shoot, a city which she has visited before and loved.

She said: "We have just had a walk on the beach and eaten the obligatory fish and chips. In between working, we are going to try to have a nice time."

Kearney's on-screen husband, Adan, is played by Andrew Greenough, who was in Brighton last year performing in Travels With My Aunt at The Theatre Royal.

Their daughter, Tadine, is played by eight-year-old Sybie Ross-Talbot a pupil at Stone-lands Stage School in Hove.

Tadine becomes friends with a young boy, Lee, played by seven-year-old Riley Goodman, a pupil at Brighton College who goes to Helen O'Grady Drama Academy, Brighton, once a week.

Six Foot High Films and Piper Films are appealing for people to help during the shoot.

They are looking for catering assistants, suppliers and cafes, food donations for the cast and crew from supermarkets, cheap accommodation for the cast and crew, the main location of a house or ground-floor flat with a kitchen which opens onto a living room, a Transit van and two mini-buses.

Call Becky Hastings on 01273 201322.