Colm Bairéad, Zara Devlin

Source: Hugh O’Conor, Brian Meade

Colm Bairéad, Zara Devlin

EXCLUSIVE: Irish filmmaker Colm Bairéad’s English-language feature Mary Rose, his follow-up to his Oscar and Bafta-nominated The Quiet Girl, has been boarded by Paris-based sales outfit and financier mk2 Films, and will launch at Cannes.

Zara Devlin, who appeared in Tim Mielants’ Small Things Like These, will star in the film, which is set in 1950s Ireland. When her rebellious twin sister flees to England, Mary Kelly is left behind to a life of duty and constraint. Years later, an unforeseen encounter pulls her into a double life, forcing her to question her identity and the morality of the system that shaped her.

A shoot is planned for this summer in Ireland, produced by The Quiet Girl producer Cleona Ní Chrualaoi of Dublin-based company Inscéal with financing from Film4, Screen Ireland, mk2 and IPR.VC as part of its multi-year financing deal, Eurimages, Screen Flanders and RTÉ.

Distribution deals have already been sealed with Curzon and Break Out Pictures for UK-Ireland, Memento in France and Cinéart in Benelux. Film4 retains UK broadcast rights.

The project will be Bairéad’s first narrative feature in the English language after the Irish-language The Quiet Girl. 

Mary Rose is being co-produced by Dries Phlypo, Erik Glijnis and Leontine Petit of Lemming Film Belgium in association with Helen Gladders of London-based Gingerbread Pictures. Executive producer for Screen Ireland is Niamh Fagan and executive producers for Film4 are Cate Kane and David Kimbangi.

“With The Quiet Girl, Colm Bairéad emerged as one of the most distinctive and emotionally precise filmmaking voices in recent years, and Mary Rose builds powerfully on that,” said Fionnuala Jamison, managing director of mk2 Films. “Deeply resonant and assured, he navigates complex moral territory with remarkable sensitivity, particularly in how systems shape victims into perpetrators. This is a script that stayed with us long after reading, and we are excited to begin sharing it.”

mk2 has eight films across official selection at Cannes, including Competition titles Marie Kreutzer’s Gentle Monster, Léa Mysius’ The Birthday Party, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur, Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love and Koji Fukada’s Nagi Notes.

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