Although you may already be spoiled for choice with all the great Irish films in cinemas over the next few weeks, there is one film in cinemas this weekend that we would thoroughly recommend, Run & Jump.
The film follows the life of Vanetia, a young mother whose husband, Conor, has just returned from hospital after suffering a stroke. While she attempts to continue her life and keep her family together, she and her husband are observed by a research doctor from the States who is studying Conor’s behaviour. Of course, nothing goes exactly as planned.
Last week, we got to sit down with the director of the film, Steph Green, who already has an Oscar nomination under her belt for her short film, New Boy. Green chatted about how she became involved in the project: “After New Boy, I was looking around for a script for my first feature film. I had heard about Ailbhe (Keogan, her co-writer for the production) and met with her in the Central Hotel. We hit it off and we were both open to collaboration and began working on the script together. The script was beautiful and had limited locations, so it checked a lot of boxes for me. We kept working on the script together, worked through a couple of drafts and finally we were ready to shoot!”
The central and most important character in the film is the wonderfully adorable Vanetia. Green chatted about how they cast the wonderful Maxine Peake: “When it came to casting for Vanetia, we looked at every Irish actress in that age range. When myself and the casting director met Maxine, we knew there was something special about her. She delivered a balance. Vanetia lives with difficult circumstances and different personalities. She is buoyant, funny but this is also difficult subject matter. We needed her to be true to reality with these difficult circumstances.”
For Conor’s character, Green and her writing team certainly did the research: “We spoke to a lot of neuro-psychologists for the Conor character. We wanted to get a realistic representation of what his character would be like and the range of behaviour for his character. However, not all behaviour is the same and Edward (MacLiam) was brilliant at finding that character and letting him emerge. We still continued to talk to psychologists about his character during filming, however.”
Green also spoke about how much of a privilege it was to work with American actor, Will Forte: “He is such an impressive actor! People are only starting to realise what is he capable of! We had a look at the male actors in that age range and when we saw Will, we thought, this guy can do this. I’m so happy because we had him first! (laughs) Now, with all of his success, everyone else is seeing what we saw. He’s a visionary!”
Even though Green was born in the States, she has worked extensively in Ireland: “Well, I’ve worked back and forth! I feel Irish! (laughs) Working in Ireland makes me feel inspired and supported. After the success of New Boy, I cemented my relations with the Film Board and other filmmakers here and thought, this is the place for me. A place where I can nurture my film work and type of filmmaking I want to work in.”
In terms of how Green feels about Irish film in general, she thinks that this is a great place to work: “Filmmakers are maturing here and there is a great wave of new filmmakers. It’s great to see Irish work internationally. I get excited when I see an Irish film abroad, or an actor, or content. I do feel like we are part of something very exciting and I also feel very accepted and supported as an Irish filmmaker. I accept my Irish adoption! (laughs)”
The film has been receiving some wonderful reviews and receptions and Green is very much looking forward to its release date here: “We had some special screenings in the US and the audiences have been wonderful. Now, with the Irish release date, we feel like the film is coming home. You know, this isn’t a loud and noisy film, so we needed people to be supportive and spread the word. We’re looking forward to it making it back to Ireland!”
Run & Jump will be released in cinemas this weekend. You can check out our review here.
