It was during the 2020 lockdown that Scottish actor Jack Lowden handed a copy of Amy Liptrot's 2016 memoir The Outrun to his then-girlfriend Saoirse Ronan. As he passed the book to the Irish actress, he told her, "This should be your next role." Fast-forward four years, the couple are now married and are also about to launch their adaptation of the Scottish journalist’s account of her return home to the Orkney Islands as she attempts to break free of her addiction to alcohol.
Ronan and Lowden had met when filming Mary Queen of Scots (2018), when the Bronx-born Dubliner was playing the northern monarch, and Lowden starred as Mary's villainous second husband Lord Darnley. Lowden has spoken of his desire for more Celtic stories to be considered and, after the pair established Arcade Pictures and became co-producers to bring their vision of the book to life, production on the film began two years ago. The tiny Orkney island Papa Westray, also known as Papay in Scotland, is an essential character in the story, adding to the film's other-worldly and ethereal atmosphere.
"The interest came from building a personal story and a location," says Ronan. Much like the lives of the earliest monks and St Magnus, whose story dominates the Orkney Islands, bringing the film into existence has been a mission for the pair. The film premiered at Sundance in January, but its first showing on this side of the Atlantic was at Edinburgh International Film Festival in August, an important show of su.