Six-time Academy Award© nominee Jim Sheridan
Posted: 22nd March 2017
Jim Sheridan’s The Secret Scripture—a feature film adaptation of Sebastian Barry’s Man Booker Prize-winning novel—will go on release in Irish cinemas this Friday, 24 March.
Featuring a stellar international and Irish cast including Academy Award© nominee Rooney Mara (Carol, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Academy Award© winner Vanessa Redgrave (Letters to Juliet, The Butler, Atonement), Eric Bana (Munich), Theo James (Insurgent) along with Jack Reynor (Glassland), Aidan Turner (The Hobbit) and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (The Infiltrator) the film had its Irish premiere at the Audi Dublin International Film Festival in February.
The Secret Scripture centres on Rose McNulty (Vanessa Redgrave), an elderly woman who has lived in state institutions for over 50 years. Despite her bleak surroundings there is a light in her eyes that cannot be extinguished. Dr. Stephen Grene (Eric Bana) is drawn to her, compelled to discover her past and help gain her freedom. Through Lady Rose’s ‘scripture’, a life of extraordinary love and great injustice emerges, revealing a remarkable young woman of courage, whose only crime was to fall in love. Set against a backdrop of an emerging Irish state in the 1940s in which female sexuality and independence unsettled the colluding patriarchies of church and nationalist politics, we learn of her ultimate triumph.
Released by Wildcard Distribution on behalf of Vertigo Releasing, The Secret Scripture was filmed on location in Dublin, Kilkenny and Sligo. The film was co-written by Johnny Ferguson and Jim Sheridan and was produced by Noel Pearson and Rob Quigley for Ferndale Films with funding from Board Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board, Ingenious Senior Film Fund and Apollo Media.