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Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story

Play trailer Poster for Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story 2024 1h 38m Documentary Biography Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 20 Reviews Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
In 1960, a young Irish woman named Edna O’Brien wrote a sexually frank debut novel, The Country Girls. She became a literary sensation, writing for The New Yorker, delivering provocative interviews, and authoring screenplays. Her success enraged her writer husband and made her a pariah in her native Ireland, where her books were banned and burned. She would make her home in London, where she conducted numerous love affairs, hosted star-studded parties, and made and lost a fortune. In July 2024, Edna passed away and this film provides a final testimony from her, aged 93, as she reflects upon her extraordinary life for filmmaker Sinéad O'Shea's camera. Granting the director access to her personal journals, read aloud in the film by the Oscar-nominated Irish actress Jessie Buckley, and with additional perspectives offered from Gabriel Byrne, Walter Mosley and an array of renowned writers, Edna does not shy from any subject.

Critics Reviews

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Kevin Maher Times (UK) O’Shea’s moving, polemical work is full of bold aesthetic choices that portray a lucid, passionate woman in her final days, ruefully reflecting via a procession of low, whispery and faltering breaths. Rated: 4/5 Apr 28, 2025 Full Review Mark Kermode Kermode and Mayo's Take (YouTube) The documentary makes really good use of interviews, of readings, of archive footage. Apr 25, 2025 Full Review Wendy Ide Observer (UK) The slightly bitter aftertaste left by this otherwise richly enjoyable documentary portrait of the writer Edna O’Brien comes from the decades of bullying and ridicule she had to endure before her talent was fully recognised. Rated: 4/5 Apr 21, 2025 Full Review Kathy Fennessy Seattle Film Blog Though an American could have made this documentary, and it wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world, only an Irish woman could really get her as thoroughly. Rated: 4/4 May 14, 2025 Full Review Sarah Manvel Movies We Texted About There are very many roadblocks to women being able to succeed in their chosen careers, and Blue Road demonstrates the intermingled joys and price of that success better than most. With only two movies Ms. O’Shea has become a director of global importance. May 2, 2025 Full Review Markie Robson-Scott The Arts Desk ...this fascinating documentary is a testimony to Edna O’Brien’s rebellious talent, her prolific output – a novel a year for a while – and her star-studded socialising. Rated: 4/5 Apr 19, 2025 Full Review Read all reviews
Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story

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Cast & Crew

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Sinéad O'Shea

Director

Edna O'Brien

Self

Jessie Buckley

Edna

Declan Conlon

Ernest

Gabriel Byrne

Self

Sinéad O'Shea

Writer

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Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story

Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story (2025) Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story (2025) Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story (2025) Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story (2025) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis In 1960, a young Irish woman named Edna O’Brien wrote a sexually frank debut novel, The Country Girls. She became a literary sensation, writing for The New Yorker, delivering provocative interviews, and authoring screenplays. Her success enraged her writer husband and made her a pariah in her native Ireland, where her books were banned and burned. She would make her home in London, where she conducted numerous love affairs, hosted star-studded parties, and made and lost a fortune. In July 2024, Edna passed away and this film provides a final testimony from her, aged 93, as she reflects upon her extraordinary life for filmmaker Sinéad O'Shea's camera. Granting the director access to her personal journals, read aloud in the film by the Oscar-nominated Irish actress Jessie Buckley, and with additional perspectives offered from Gabriel Byrne, Walter Mosley and an array of renowned writers, Edna does not shy from any subject.
Director
Sinéad O'Shea
Producer
Eleanor Emptage
Screenwriter
Sinéad O'Shea
Production Co
SOS Films
Genre
Documentary, Biography
Original Language
British English
Runtime
1h 38m