29 March 2024 The Irish Film & Television Network
     
‘Strangerland’ co-writer Michael Kinirons: “I wanted to keep it messy – this is a really intense situation and these are complex characters”
04 Feb 2016 : Seán Brosnan
‘Strangerland’ is in cinemas February 5th
It has been a long road for ‘Strangerland’. The Irish/Australian co-production from Fastnet Films was in development hell for years before Macdara Kelleher from Fastnet Films commissioned Michael Kinirons to write the script, based on an original idea by Fiona Seres.

An A-List cast was soon assembled – one that included Oscar winner Nicole Kidman (‘The Others’) and lauded actor Joseph Fiennes. The pressure of writing such a high-profile script in a feature film debut would understandably unnerve a lot of writers, but for Kinirons, he felt there was nothing to lose.

“It very much came about from Macdara knowing me, knowing the kind of stuff I like to write and knowing that I had a very strong vision for this film”, says Kinirons. “It was a shot in the dark. In a lot of ways though there was nothing for us to lose. This project was either going to die or we give it one last go.”

Despite being credited as a co-writer with Fiona Seres on the film, Kinirons says the first time he met her was at the film’s premiere at Sundance last year, with Seres happy to pass the baton to the Irish screen-writer after developing the idea as far as she felt she could take it.

“She was happy to step off it so there was a very amicable level of separation there. We were on opposite sides of the world and we just got on with it.”

In the space of a year and a half, Kinirons wrote five drafts of the film working very closely with director Kim Farrant in her debut feature film.

“With ‘Strangerland’, it was about setting out straight away that something really dramatic must have happened in this family’s back-story”, explains the writer, who describes ‘Picnic At Hanging Rock’ and ‘Prisoners’ as inspirations for the tone of ‘Strangerland’. “All of that past is unspoken and unseen but it is there. I wanted to give a sense that there is a ticking time-bomb with this family and that we are coming into the story just as things are about to unravel again.”

A perennially difficult element of writing a good mystery thriller is the opening – creating the right amount of suspense to draw the audience whilst also successfully developing the characters.

“That comes through with each passing draft”, states Kinirons.“You have to be concise and efficient and you have to encapsulate in those few minutes what this film is about.”

The film made its’ premiere at Sundance last year garnering a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize. Reviews were enthusiastic with many critics praising the unpredictability of the film and it’s evasion of usual suspense film tropes.

“I think people are very savvy to suspense films these days so I think they get a thrill when they watch something where they really don’t know what will happen. I was conscious of not going for the easy pay-off. I wanted to keep it messy – this is a really intense situation and these are complex characters. On the outset, the film is about trying to find these kids in this drought but you also have this powder-keg situation where these characters are dealing with paranoia, suspicions and secrets. That’s the core of the movie – it’s a reflection of ourselves and how we are strangers to each other and trying to bridge that gap.”

Not many writers get to see Oscar winners perform their scripts in their feature film debut – was it odd for Kinirons to go from making Irish short films to workshopping with acclaimed international actors?

“It’s completely surreal. We had three weeks of rehearsals and workshopping and for someone like me who has progressed slowly writing shorts to then sit there and watch Nicole Kidman rehearsing these lines was so surreal', says Kinirons, whose previous shorts include 'I Can't See You Anymore ' and 'Lowland Fell'. "It was really a big break for me and I am very appreciative. To have actors of the calibre of Nicole and Joseph (Fiennes) like this script and see something in it was amazing. Working with someone like Nicole - who is so cool and laid back when you meet her but is then so professional and in the zone when she arrives to film – you understand why these actors make the money they do. She was so prepared – right from the first scene she had it. She straight away encapsulated this character.”

In the past, Kinirons wrote as well as directed his own short films - is feature film directing on his mind now after breaking in with ‘Strangerland’?

“Directing was always my ambition and I only started writing because no-one is just going to hand you a good script [laughs]. It’s funny how it worked out. Ireland is tricky – there are not a lot of opportunities for directors. Once you have made a few shorts – there is a gap for a lot of filmmakers. Writing was a good route for me to keep developing projects but I certainly plan to direct in the future.”

Unsurprisingly, Kinirons is currently a busy man. He has just finished the script for 1916 drama ‘Come Monday We’ll Kill Them All’, described by the filmmaker as a “Raymond Chandleresque pulpy film noir meets ‘Chinatown’ set against the Easter Rising.” Long-time collaborator Macdara Kelleher will produce with Kinirons predicting that the budget “will probably cost about €20 million!”.

The filmmaker also got commissioned to write a Danish explorer drama set in Greenland called ‘We Watched The Sun Disappear’ and is set to travel to Greenland next week. He is also developing a psychological thriller called ‘No More Should We Part’, a twisted revenge story centred on a grieving woman getting revenge on a couple who exploited her anguish.

‘Strangerland’ is in cinemas February 5th. Check out the trailer below:





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