Some writers need solitude. Cara Loftus thrives on collaboration. That is thanks, in part, to her many years working in production in London — from documentary to bigger features — culminating as production supervisor on Disney’s Disenchanted.
For her debut feature Spilt Milk, she treasured the collective dialogue with director Brian Durnin and the team. “I was there on set. We were always aligned in what we were doing. I felt supported through the whole process,” says Loftus, who grew up in Dublin in an “imaginative household full of storytelling. When other kids were playing sports on the weekend, I was going to the DVD rental store.”
Spilt Milk is an unexpected coming-of-age story starting with cute kids pretending to be detectives in 1980s Dublin, but shifting into a personal look at the city’s drugs epidemic and how the community rallied together. “I wanted the children to bring you into this world,” explains Lotus. “It felt right that we were coming from this place of innocence and naivety and ended up with the realisation of this collective community action.”
The film has been a hit at this year’s IFTAs, where it garnered four nominations, as well as at film festivals including Dublin, where she won the discovery award, and Glasgow, where it took the audience award.
Other than production, Loftus says she has developed her collaborative spirit through training schemes such as Screen Ireland’s Spotlight (“Spilt Milk wouldn’t exist without it”), the Puttnam Scholars Programme, BBC Scripted, Storyhouse Lab and Stowe Connemara Writers’ Retreat.
In addition to Spilt Milk, Lotus wrote an episode in season three of Peter McKenna’s crime drama Hidden Assets. Currently, she is working on two feature scripts: Harmony, an eco-thriller with Tailored Films, and an untitled historical biopic with MK1 Studios. She also has two TV shows in development.
“Even if it looks like I’m stepping into different worlds, the same questions are bubbling to the surface, about community, individualism, social change and family,” she reflects.
Contact: Frances Arnold, Rochelle Steven
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