WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? (ROSE PLAYS JULIE)

The Irish are renowned for their storytelling.

As a country that has a strong oral storytelling tradition, the ability to spin a good yarn has long been treasured there - particularly in literature and song.

It took some time, however, for the Irish to properly get to grips with visual storytelling and to make their mark in cinema and TV.

For many years, directors like Cathal Black, Maeve Murphy, Joe Comerford and Bob Quinn ploughed a lonely furrow in the industry, with little recognition beyond their homeland.

The international success In the 1980s and 90s of Pat O'Connor, Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan took Irish cinema, however, to a whole new level.

In the wake of their success and the country's Celtic Tiger boom, a raft of filmmaking talent has emerged.

Directors like Lenny Abrahamson, Aisling Walsh, Conor McPherson, Thaddeus O'Sullivan, John Carney, Dearbhla Walsh, John Crowley, John Moore, Kirsten Sheridan, Lance Daly, Alan Gilsenan, Damian O'Donnell, Paddy Breathnach, Ian Fitzgibbon, Tomm Moore, Nora Twomey, Lee Cronin, Peter Foott, Rachel Carey, Stephen Burke, Darren Thornton, Lorcan Finnegan and Juanita Wilson have come to the fore and made their mark.

North of the border, Brian Desmond Hurst initially flew the flag before Roy and Noel Spence, Margo Harkin, Terry George, Kenneth Branagh, John T Davis, Tom Collins, Enda Hughes, Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D'Sa, David Kirk, Mark Cousins, Maeve Murphy, Michael Lennox, Terry Loane, Chris Baugh, Andy and Ryan Tohill and Stephen Fingleton surfaced. 

With both sides of the border becoming magnets for international film and television production, experience has grown.

The industry's contribution to the Irish Republic's economy also more than doubled from €164 million in 2010 to €357 million in 2019.

The support of national broadcasters like RTE, TG4, Virgin Media and its predecessor TV3 have helped propel the growth of indigenous film and television voices to the point where it is no longer a cottage industry.

With increased opportunity and investment, indigenous filmmaking talent continues to emerge.

One of the most intriguing filmmaking partnerships in recent years has been Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor who both have a background in theatre.

Under the creative title of Desperate Optimists Productions, Molloy and Lawlor first caught people's eye with their 2008 debut feature 'Helen' about a young girl involved in a crime reconstruction which triggers her own need to confront her past.

Their 2013 follow-up 'Mister John' with Aidan Gillen tackled the experience of an Irish businessman in Singapore struggling to come to terms with the death of his brother and a crumbling marriage.

'Further Beyond' in 2016 with Gillen and Denise Gough earned rave reviews for the way it blended elements of drama, documentary and a visual essay for an unconventional biopic examining the tale of Ambrosio O'Higgins, a late 18th Century Irish Spanish administrator in South America who ruled in Chile and Peru.

Gillen also has a substantial role in their latest film 'Rose Plays Julie' - an atmospheric thriller that doesn't quite follow convention.

Also written by Molloy and Lawlor, Ann Skelly stars as Rose, a student in a veterinary hospital in Dublin whose adopted mother has recently passed away.

Her adopted mother's passing prompts her to trace her birth parents and she discovers Orla Brady's well known London-based actress Ellen is her mum.

Watching a film on her laptop featuring Ellen, she decides to make contact with her but ringing her birth mother's phone number, she panics and struggles to say anything.

On discovering Ellen is selling her house in London, Rose crosses the Irish Sea and pretends to be a potential buyer.

As she waits for the estate agent to arrive, she meets Ellen's teenage daughter, Sadie Soverall's Eva.

During the viewing, Ellen twigs who Rose is and she also arouses the suspicion of the viewing agent.

Ellen nevertheless engages Rose in conversation and takes her out to some nearby woods to talk.

Responding to her adopted daughter's questions, she reveals that Rose was born as a result of a rape that occurred on a golf course.

Instead of getting an abortion, Ellen explains she went ahead with her birth because she hoped her baby would be the one positive thing to emerge out of an horrific experience. 

However when Rose was born, she found the reality of having a child born as a result of a rape too much to bear.

She just could not keep her and decided it would be better for Rose if she was given up for adoption.

Disclosing Rose was initially called Julie when she was born, Ellen also reveals the man who raped her was Aidan Gillen's Peter Doyle, a well known archaeologist back in Dublin.

Back in Ireland, Rose turns up at a book signing that Peter is involved in and then at an archaeological dig that he is overseeing.

Pretending to be an actress called Julie researching the part of an archaeologist, she asks him if she can join the dig and he agrees.

But with Peter interested in her, will Julie reveal she is his daughter and what will his reaction be?

And with Ellen also returning to Dublin to develop her relationship with her adopted daughter, what will the impact be on her of Rose confronting Peter about a crime he has gotten away with?

Molloy and Lawlor have crafted a sombre, yet really substantial piece of work that taps into a lot of themes that will resonate with audiences - particularly in Ireland.

'Rose Plays Julie' tackles the suppression of uncomfortable truths from the past and the trauma that inevitably emerges as they are unearthed.

Viewers in Ireland will immediately think of buried truths like the clerical sex abuse scandals of the Irish Catholic Church, the mother and baby homes or the violence that occurred during Northern Ireland's Troubles.

That trauma is not only inflicted on the victims but is handed down to subsequent generations as they confront the perpetrators with the reality of what they did.

While it is an uncomfortable journey for Rose and Ellen in particular, theirs is a compelling story expertly crafted by a skilful directorial team.

The film also plays with themes of disguise and how it is used sometimes to suppress uncomfortable truths.

Peter passes himself off as a respected archaeologist with a nice middle class marriage to Catherine Walker's Teresa but it is all a front, concealing a sexual predator.

It is no accident that the book he launches is called 'Beneath the Surface'.

Disguises are what Ellen does for a living.

As an actor she lives in a world of escapism, tapping into past experiences and emotions.

Rose also dons a disguise - wearing a wig and adopting the persona of Julie to dig into her past and meet how her real father in a bid to fathom how he could have raped Ellen.

The set up is Hitchcockian and beautifully delivered, with Tom Comerford's cinematography using dark, wintery palettes to imbue ordinary settings like the veterinary school, halls of residence, Ellen's home, her Dublin hotel room, the golf course, the archaeological dig with a sinister, foreboding feel.

Skelly and Brady turn in perfectly judged performances that keep the audience hooked.

Gillen typically takes on a dislikeable character and excels in a nuanced performance that avoids Jared Leto style histrionics.

Indeed, it is Molloy and Lawlor's refusal to plump for the obvious or rush their tale that makes 'Rose Plays Julie' so classy and gripping.

Budding filmmakers would do well to take note and study a movie like 'Rose Plays Julie' because it shows how well crafted tale on a modest budget can say an awful lot.

Like Anthony and Ryan Tohill's impressive but unfortunately overlooked allegorical tale 'The Dig,' it is a well made film of considerable heft that will have you stewing on its subject matter for days.

Watching 'Rose Plays Julie' you appreciate just how far Irish cinema has come.

But you also realise how much we owe Cathal Black, Maeve Murphy, Joe Comerford and Bob Quinn for lighting the sparks of a film industry capable of profound work like this.

('Rose Plays Julie' opened in UK and Irish cinemas on September 17, 2021)