‘Shadow Dancer’ the Irish, English and French co-production by Oscar winning director James Marsh (Project Nim, Man on Wire) has opened for its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim.
The film was shot in Ireland and is a co-production between Unanimous Entertainment, Element Pictures and French WildBunch Production in association with LipSync Productions. It is an action thriller set in Dublin in the 1990’s. Director Marsh has been praised in a review by Mike Goodridge of Screendaily for his pace and for “hitting the beats of a thriller while getting into the psychology of a war zone.”
Cast for the film includes English talent Clive Owen (Children of Men, Inside Man), Gillian Anderson (The Last King of Scotland) and relative Andrea Riseborough (Never Let Me Go, W.E) who is touted by Goodridge as giving a “riveting lead performance,” and Irish actors Aidan Gillen (Love/Hate, Game of Thrones) and Domhnall Gleeson (Sensation, True Grit).
It follows the story of Collette, played by Riseborough, who has become a radical IRA member working with a highly active cell run by her two other brothers Gerry and Conor, played by Gillen and Gleeson respectively. The Irish actors are also praised by The Hollywood Reporter writer David Rooney in his Sundance review saying that they “convey a lot with intentionally underwritten characters.” On a mission to plant a bomb in the London Underground, she is detained by the MI5 and an officer named Mac (Clive Owen) who offers her a choice: go to prison for 25 years and lose her young son Mark forever, or return to Belfast and act as an informer about Gerry and Conor’s activities.
The film was funded by the BBC, BFI, UK Tax Credit, WildBunch, Section 481 and the Irish Film Board. ‘Shadow Dancer’ is being distributed by Paramount Pictures and will go on release in Irish cinemas on September 28th.
