Career
Harper began his career making short films. Harper then moved on to direct a range of film and television work which includes Misfits, The Scouting Book for Boys (2010), This Is England "86, The Borrowers (2011), Peaky Blinders (2013), and The Woman in Black: Angel of Death. The Scouting Book for Boys was filmed throughout September and October 2008.
In 2014, Harper re-teamed with Jack Thorne, the writer of The Scouting Book for Boys, to make War Book, which premiered at the London Film Festival and had its international premiere as the opening film of the International Festival of Film Rotterdam.
The film received critical acclaim with The List calling it a "powerful, provocative and essential piece of modern British cinema". Harper was also a producer on the film.
He directed the 2016 British Broadcasting Corporation television mini-series War & Peace, starring Paul Dano, Lily James and James Norton for BBC1 and The Weinstein Company.