THE OUTRUN - WE HEAR FROM JACK LOWDEN and NORA FINGSCHEIDT

Could Saoirse Ronan garner yet another Oscar nomination?

Four-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan is creating buzz again for her performance in Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun, an adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s 2016 memoir about a recovering alcoholic and the healing power of nature. 

Set in the otherworldly Orkney Islands of Scotland, the film sees Ronan serving as the narrator and as a first-time producer. Amy Liptrot spent two winters by herself on Papay while writing her book. 

After a 10-year absence, 29-year-old biology grad Rona (Ronan) returns home to Orkney’s Mainland, the largest of 70 islands making up the archipelago.  The story flashes between past and present, revealing how her alcohol consumption escalated from fun to frightening, costing her everything, from a promising lab job to a loving boyfriend (Paapa Essiedu).

Now sober but lonely, Rona finds it hard to navigate her separated parents. Her mother (Saskia Reeves) is a religious convert, and her father (Stephen Dillane) is bipolar, prone to periodic episodes.  While staying with her mother in town, Rona is also helping out at her father’s farm, even birthing a lamb
(which Ronan learned to do for the role).  Then Rona takes a job, surveying the islands for corncrakes, a once-prolific bird now on the endangered list.  After a setback, Rona isolates herself on Orkney’s tiny Papay (an island that lies off an island, off an island, off an island). 

The film is filled with folklore (shape shifting seals known as Selkies), stunning landscape (craggy cliffs, endless skies, water everywhere), colour (Rona’s hair defining her journey, from blonde to pink to blue to blue tips to…?), and music (the throb of Rona’s EDM echoing the crash of waves).

The film is directed by Nora Fingscheidt who also explored the scarred female psyche in 2019 Silver Berlin winner System Crasher.  Script is by Fingscheidt and Amy Liptrot, based on a screenstory by Liptrot, Fingscheidt and Daisy Lewis.

I spoke with Producer Jack Lowden ( Saoirse Ronan’s actor husband) and director Nora Fingscheidt about the challenges of making this film.

THE OUTRUN opens October 4 across Canada, including Toronto (Varsity, TIFF Lightbox, Empress Walk,Winston Churchill, Eglinton Town Centre and Whitby)!The film also opens October 4 in Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Burlington, Waterloo, Kingston,London, Barrie, Alliston, Saskatoon, Vancouver, Kelowna and Victoria.