Rose Plays Julie

A young adopted woman tracks down her birth mother only to be confronted by revelations that draw her into the dark world of her father. This is a film about digging up the past in more ways than one.   “The tale taps into primal urges—for love, revenge, knowledge—and these urges give “Rose Plays Julie” a mythic quality, like a story told since antiquity, or a fable designed to express truths about the human condition. ROSE PLAYS JULIE is very controlled in its style: this control reaps huge rewards.” ~ Sheila O’Malley – Roger Ebert.

Like Molloy and Lawlor’s previous films, it, too, explores their recurrent themes of identity/doubling and performance. But there are also strong undercurrents referring to Greek myths from Oedipus and Electra as well as King Agamemnon’s killing of one of goddess Artemis’ sacred stags. The film was shot on location in Dublin and Wicklow in the summer of 2018, its powerful soundtrack was originally composed and arranged by Irish composer, Stephen McKeon.

Here’s some of what the directors have to say about the origins of the film:

“One day we will subject ourselves to psychoanalysis to find out why it is exactly we are so drawn to narratives and characters where the central focus is identity under duress. We’re particularly interested in the loss of identity or the moment of transformation when someone’s sense of their own identity is altered. Having made two previous films in which our main characters quite literally step into someone else’s shoes and assimilate themselves into someone else’s life, and in so doing find a way to move forward with their own life, with Rose Plays Julie we were intrigued by the idea that our central character Rose, could become a different version of herself, Julie, the person she would have been if she hadn’t been put up for adoption. At the heart of the film is Rose’s desire to reconcile these two different versions of herself, as not knowing her past – where she came from – she is struggling to imagine her future.”