About Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story
‘F**k the plot! That is for precocious schoolboys. What matters is the imaginative truth.’
In 1960, a young Irish woman named Edna O’Brien wrote a sexually frank debut novel, The Country Girls. She became a literary sensation, writing for The New Yorker, delivering provocative interviews, and authoring screenplays. Her success enraged her writer husband and made her a pariah in her native Ireland, where her books were banned and burned. She would make her home in London, where she conducted numerous love affairs, hosted star-studded parties, and made and lost a fortune.
In July 2024, Edna passed away and this film provides a final testimony from her, aged 93, as she reflects upon her extraordinary life for filmmaker Sinéad O’Shea’s camera. Granting the director access to her personal journals — read aloud in the film by the Oscar nominated Irish actress Jessie Buckley — and with additional perspectives offered from Gabriel Byrne, Walter Mosley and an array of renowned writers, Edna does not shy from any subject.
Booking info
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Duration includes trailers, adverts and any Q&A/panel. For events such as NT Live, Colour Box and Reel & Meal there will be minimal advertising. We do not admit latecomers after the main feature has started and we have a limited food & drink policy.
MAC’s cinema programme has been generously supported by BFI Film Audience Network and Film Hub Midlands.
