Maze Achieves Largest Opening Weekend For An Irish Film In 2017

The film opened without previews to over €141k (£124k) after its release, Friday September 22nd, on 65 screens (between ROI and NI).
'Maze' received its World Premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh in July, followed by a screening at the Belfast Film Festival in September, as well as featuring as the cinema highlight of Cork’s Culture Night film programme on the opening night, 22 September.
Based on the true story of the 1983 mass break-out of 38 IRA prisoners from HMP Maze high-security prison in Northern Ireland.
As fictional character Larry Marley (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor), the chief architect of the escape, schemes his way towards pulling off this feat, he comes into contact with prison warder, Gordon Close (Barry Ward).
In reality, the chief architects of the Maze's great escape were Bobby Storey and Gerry Kelly, both of whom have spoken in-depth to Hot Press magazine in the past.
But in the movie, initially Larry and Gordon are confirmed enemies, born on opposite sides of Northern Ireland’s political divide, but when Larry realises that Gordon may be unwittingly useful for his escape plan, a slow seduction begins.
Larry intends to use and manipulate Gordon in order to get closer to his goal but what follows is a tense, and intriguing drama in which an unlikely relationship is forged between two enemies that will have far reaching consequences for both of them.
Produced by Jane Doolan and Brendan J Byrne, 'Maze' is distributed by Lionsgate UK, and was financed by The Irish Film Board, RTE, BAI, Film Vast, Windmill Lane, Cork regional funding and Irish tax incentives for the film industry.

The movie is based on the great escape masterminded by IRA members Gerry Kelly and Bobby Storey, both of whom have been the subject of major ‘Hot Press’ interviews.
The infamous Maze prison escape in 1983 was the largest break-out of prisoners anywhere in Europe since World War II.
Talking to Hot Press’ Jason O’Toole back in 2009 in what was his first ever major in-depth interview, Bobby Storey had this to say: “People who don’t know much about the escape might think of it as a wham bam, run, attack and climb over the wall, or ram the gate type of action. But – in actual fact – it was a very complicated operation.
"We embarked on a deliberate strategy of relaxing the H-Blocks and relaxing the wings by having a more practical working relationship with the screws. That actually defused the tensions.
“It suited us because from a security point of view that gave us more psychological control and more territorial control within the wings and blocks.
"It also created a less alert climate amongst staff because they weren’t fearful of us attacking them, and so they naturally relaxed.
"Some of them actually stopped carrying their batons and grills, which were normally locked, would be left open. It created the perfect conditions for us to carry out what then became the biggest escape in British penal history.”