AN adaptation of a Scottish woman’s memoir is receiving critical acclaim after its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
Amy Liptrot’s 2016 memoir The Outrun, which documents her experience recovering from alcoholism in her childhood home of Orkney, was greenlit for a film version back in 2022.
Liptrot wrote the adaptation alongside director Nora Fingscheidt.
The completed film has now been shown at the annual Sundance Film Festival in Utah, the biggest showcase of independent films in the United States.
The film and the starring performance of Irish actress Saoirse Ronan have been highly praised by critics.
Saoirse Ronan gives a spectacular, Oscar-worthy performance in The Outrun, the first great film I’ve seen at Sundance. She’s the whole show in this riveting, powerfully made drama about an alcoholic’s road to recovery after hitting rock bottom. Ronan fans, you are in for a treat. pic.twitter.com/k7bMiQKnZo
— Brian Rowe @ Sundance (@mrbrianrowe) January 20, 2024
“Saoirse Ronan gives a spectacular, Oscar-worthy performance in The Outrun, the first great film I’ve seen at Sundance,” said critic Brian Rowe.
“She’s the whole show in this riveting, powerfully made drama about an alcoholic’s road to recovery after hitting rock bottom. Ronan fans, you are in for a treat.”
Chief critic for Vanity Fair Richard Lawson also praised the film and said it may have fans flocking to Orkney.
“Those in recovery, and those close to someone who is, ought to find something nourishing in The Outrun, a stirring reminder of the human capacity to regroup, to accept a bitter past and anticipate a better future,” he said.
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“Anyone who sees the film may also want to take a pensive trip out across the Pentland Firth to explore these islands for themselves.
“Their rugged beauty is fairly rendered in The Outrun, both forbidding and inviting; they truly seem like places that could, if approached in the right manner, offer some clarity. Perhaps Saoirse Ronan could be our guide, if even just on tape.”
Producers have previously said the support from the community in Orkney was fundamental to the film’s completion after filming took place on the islands back in 2022.
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