One of the best films we saw on the film festival circuit last year is coming to the U.S. for an official release next month. Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s Rose Plays Julie follows Ann Skelly as Rose, a college student who was adopted as a child and now seeks to peel back the layers as it pertains to her biological parents. A darker past is hiding, and as our exclusive trailer premiere shows, the directors imbue a brooding intensity in this search. Also starring Orla Brady and Aiden Gillen, Film Movement will release Rose Plays Julie on Virtual Cinemas on March 19, along with VOD & Digital platforms.

Jared Mobarak said in his Nightstream review, “Get ready for a tense ride because writers/directors Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s Rose Plays Julie never relinquishes its sense of brooding until the very last frame’s welcome exhale of relief. Why should they considering the subject matter? This is a dark story dealing with a reality too many women have experienced without the means for guaranteed justice. So while it might be a spoiler to say, I’m not sure it’s possible to speak about the film without mentioning how everything we witness is the result of a rape that occurred two decades previously. That event led to Rose’s (Ann Skelly) birth. It forced Ellen (Orla Brady) to explicitly state that she did not want her daughter to ever reach out. And its shared pain drives them today.”

See the exclusive trailer and poster below.

Rose (Ann Skelly) is at university studying veterinary science. An only child, she has enjoyed a loving relationship with her adoptive parents. However, for as long as Rose can remember she has wanted to know who her biological parents are and the facts of her true identity. After years trying to trace her birth mother, Rose now has a name and a number. All she has to do is pick up the phone and call. When she does it quickly becomes clear that her birth mother has no wish to have any contact. Rose is shattered. A renewed and deepened sense of rejection compels her to keep going. Rose travels from Dublin to London in an effort to confront her birth mother, Ellen (Orla Brady).

Ellen is deeply disturbed when Rose turns up unannounced. The very existence of this young woman threatens the stability of the new life Ellen has painstakingly put together. But Rose proves very tenacious and Ellen is forced to reveal a secret she has kept hidden for over 20 years. This shocking revelation forces Rose to accept the violent nature of how she came into existence.

Rose believes she has little to lose but much to gain when she sets out to confront her biological father, Peter (Aidan Gillen). What Rose cannot possibly foresee is that she is on a collision course that will prove both violent and unsettling – dark forces gather and threaten to destroy her already fragile sense of her own identity.

Rose Plays Julie opens on Virtual Cinemas, VOD, and Digital platforms on March 19. See more info here.

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