Review by Brad Balfour
Film: “Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story”
Director: Sinéad O’Shea
Cast: Edna O’Brien, Jessie Buckley
Though the late writer Edna O’Brien isn’t a household name in the United States, she became a legend in her home turf of Ireland. The author has had such recognition, not so much for the joyful celebration she made of women and their expression, but for all those she pissed off during her life.
Born on December 15, 1930, in Tuamgraney, Ireland, Josephine Edna O’Brien DBE stirred to life when all sorts of trauma, especially for women, were viciously suppressed by the church and state. O’Brien’s works often considered the inner lives of women and addressed their problems relating to men and society as a whole. Ireland of the ’60s was a repressive place torn between violence and isolation and she was reacting to how that world affected her personally.
Her first novel, 1960’s “The Country Girls,” has been credited with breaking the silence on sexual matters and social issues during a repressive period in Ireland after the Second World War. The book — which was only the first of a trilogy — was banned and denounced from the pulpit. That only spurred her to write many more novels about the inner feelings of women and their problems relating to men and society as a whole.
When director Sinéad O’Shea snagged the last interview with the 93-year-old author shortly before her death earlier this year, she knew she had to finish her detailed documentary about the controversial author. Her documentary film, “Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story,” premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and made its American debut at 2024’s DOC NYC Festival recently. It’s due for release in Irish cinemas in January 2025.
O’Shea does a crafty job of putting together a portrait of this complex woman through readings of her journals (narrated by Jessie Buckley), and includes interviews with O’Brien new and old, archival footage, rare clips of films made from her writings and reports from throughout her history. But this unique interview done with O’Brien near the end of her life (she died July 27th, 2024) is really the topper of the whole film.
O’Brien alternated between being a celebrity who hosted society parties in New York and a pariah in Ireland. Her books not only prompted culture change on the Emerald Island but also encouraged generations of women writers who followed after her such as the late Nuala O’Faolain. And this film prompts considerable curiosity of the author’s work that one hopes will want to delve Into her work. Many of her novels were based in Ireland, but her last novel, 2019’s “Girl,“ was a fictional account of a victim of the 2014 Chibok kidnapping in Nigeria.
In 2015, she was elected to Aosdána by her fellow artists and honored with the title Saoi. A recipient of many other awards, she won the Irish PEN Award in 2001 and the biennial David Cohen Prize in 2019. France made her a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2021. Her short story collection “Saints and Sinners” won the 2011 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the world’s richest prize for that genre.
Knowledge of this track record enhances the viewing of the film. But even without knowing any of this or having read any of her work, this film establishes who she was and outlines her fascinating history. O’Brien, having suffered abuse in her earlier life and success later on, is definitely someone worth learning about. Thankfully, this Irish filmmaker has done an effective job in getting a lot of that across.