Ten years after the disappearance of their teenage daughter, a couple is confronted by a young woman claiming to be that long-lost girl... Writer/Producer/Director Virginia Gilbert introduces her new film Reawakening, now on release and starring acting heavyweights Jared Harris and Juliet Stephenson.
Reawakening is the tale of an ordinary couple who have had to face the unthinkable – the loss of their child, with no answers as to her fate. Every parent’s worst nightmare. The story asks us to consider how we might deal with deep emotional pain. What does it take to keep facing the world? To be forced to go on with the hope that your child might, just maybe, come home? And then to face reality when, one day, she does….
I’d had the initial idea for the story years ago – I can vividly remember sitting in my kitchen in Dublin on one of those cold, crisp, sunny mornings, and writing a paragraph or two. It was no more than a premise at that stage: a lost daughter returns after a long disappearance and the parents have wildly different reactions. It was an idea I put into a drawer as I got busy with other projects and then life happened to me. My mother died unexpectedly after a short illness, and I became a mother myself the following year.
The transformation of my life and self was, I suspect, what drew me back to this material, though it didn’t happen immediately. When lockdown happened a few years later, the idea began to call to me in a way I haven’t experienced before. I wrote it very fast, almost in some sort of fever-dream (and possibly to avoid home-schooling my 5-year-old), but it was one of those rare and miraculous experiences where the story came out more or less fully formed. I suppose I could finally write it because there was something I needed to say.
I've always believed that art shouldn’t preach, it should draw us in and quietly illuminate.
I sent the script to a US producer-financier I had collaborated with on a previous project, Lucette Walters, with her company Little Light Films. Lucette is one of those incredibly rare producers and patrons that you usually only fantasize about. She has a deep passion for art and cinema, is a terrific storyteller herself and is the sort of ally you would invent if you could design the perfect financier. She loved the script and was excited by the possibilities and enabled my fellow producer Barry Castagnola and I to gear up for production, aiming to shoot in the summer of 2022.
When it came to casting, you of course have a wish list of actors. It's very, very rare that your wish list comes true. But on this production, I think the gods of film were smiling on us. Erin Doherty came on board quite early and I was thrilled. She was my first choice for Clare, having hugely admired her work in both The Crown and Chloe. I had wanted to work with Juliet Stevenson for years and I couldn’t have been more overjoyed when she agreed to play Mary. She’s one of our great actors and I knew she would bring total depth and rootedness to a psychologically complex and challenging role. I’ve admired Jared Harris's work for many, many years. He, too, is one of our great actors - a true chameleon in the sense that every single character he's ever played is utterly three dimensional, and he manages to completely disappear within a role. I wanted to see him play a character like John, a sort of an everyman. Initially, we didn’t think the dates would work with him, but by some miracle, we discovered that he was likely to be technically free and so with bated breath and the clock ticking for our summer window of shooting, we sent him the script. He read very fast and we spoke on the phone and after our conversation, he agreed to play the part. It was one of those extraordinary situations where three of the most superb actors came on and elevated this story in a way I could only have dreamed of. I think their outstanding performances in the film speak for themselves.
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The shoot was challenging! We shot in the London suburb of Harrow – where I grew up – just as the UK was hit by a raging heatwave. I don’t know if you’ve ever stood in a small garage with a corrugated iron roof, tented out with heavy black material (so we could film day for night); with portable air conditioners that no one had thought to position correctly so that the hot air is flowing back into the room; a lighting rig, camera, multiple crew, while it hits 40 degrees outside... Let’s just say, the crew kept multiple cans of deodorant to hand throughout. Overall, the shoot was an intense experience – partly because of the extreme heat, which did not abate at all for the duration and partly because of the challenges of shooting a feature in 23 days. Add the covid situation into the equation – we were one of the first films to happen just after the government insurance scheme for Covid and filming had ended. So that was fun and games on the production side. Creatively, however, it was one of the most enriching experiences of my life. Working with such extraordinary actors, who knew the material so deeply and who were so committed to the truth of their characters and situations, was a joy. Their work in the film is just exceptional and audiences thus far have reacted so profoundly, passionately and positively. I’ve never before had audience members tell me just after a screening that they were buying tickets immediately to watch the film again. Long may it last…
I’m thrilled that Reawakening is coming to cinemas. For a small, low-budget indie film, a theatrical release is wonderful – to be seen as it was designed to be experienced. I think the film has the power to touch a wide range of people, as age has no bearing on experience and the film has themes that many can relate to. Ultimately, it’s a profoundly hopeful film, even in the face of tragedy and loss. I hope the audience will feel that sense of strength and the leaps of faith we make to deepen us and give our lives meaning. I also hope that it’s a compelling and entertaining story – it is, after all, a film about grief masquerading as a thriller. I’ve always believed that art shouldn’t preach, it should draw us in and quietly illuminate. I hope people feel that ninety minutes in the company of this story is ninety minutes well-spent.
Reawakening is in Irish cinemas now.
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