Documentary Screening

Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story

Filmmaker Sinéad O’Shea (Pray for Our Sinners) brings us author, playwright and socialite Edna O’Brien, as she candidly reflects upon her life and career in this astounding documentary.

Defying Ireland’s patriarchal, religious constraints with her sexually frank 1960 debut novel, The Country Girls, she became a literary sensation. Vilified in Ireland and escaping an abusive husband, O’Brien was empowered and prolific, controversial and sexually open, a taboo-breaking powerhouse who made a fortune and lost one.

Completed shortly before her death last year, Blue Road features extracts from O’Brien’s journals (read by Jessie Buckley), contributions from, among others, Gabriel Byrne and Anne Enright, and a remarkable final interview with Edna, aged 93, as she reflects with dignity and candour on her extraordinary life.