From IndieWire comes the first trailer from The Other Side of Sleep director Rebecca Daly’s new film Mammal, which premiered to strong buzz at the Sundance Film Festival.
The film features Australian actress Rachel Griffiths, Irish rising star Barry Keoghan, as well as Michael McElhatton, Johnny Ward, Aoife King, Joanne Crawford, Nika McGuigan, and Annabell Rickerby.
The film is the story of Margaret (Griffiths), a separated woman living alone in Dublin, who learns that her teenage son has been found dead. Enduring her unsettling grief privately, she escapes daily to the local swimming pool. One day at the pool she runs into Joe (Keoghan), a homeless youth she found injured late one night in the deserted laneway behind her work. Margaret offers Joe a room in her house and an unorthodox relationship starts to develop between them. Margaret’s ex- husband Matt (Michael McElhatton) begins to turn up randomly in Margaret’s life. As Margaret and Joe’s mutual reliance grows their tentative trust is threatened by the escalation of Matt’s grieving rage and Joe’s involvement with a gang of violent youths.
Written by Rebecca Daly and Glenn Montgomery, the film is produced by Macdara Kelleher for Fastnet Films (Strangerland, Kisses, The Other Side of Sleep) with co-producers Calach Films in Luxembourg and Rinkel Film in The Netherlands.
Funded by Bord Scannán na hEireann / the Irish Film Board (IFB), Luxembourg Film Fund, BAI, TV3, the Dutch Film Fund and the Dutch Production incentive, Mammal will be released for Irish audiences by Wildcard Distribution next year.
Director Rebecca Daly studied theatre directing and acting and went on to study film. Her first short Joyriders (2006) won the IFTA for Best Short Film as well as RTÉ Two Best First Irish Short at the 2006 Galway Film Fleadh. Her first feature The Other Side of Sleep (2011) premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival and in the Discovery section of Toronto International Film Festival. Rebecca was selected to participate in the first Berlinale Residency with her second feature film Mammal.