The Bleak Shall Inherit The Earth

After winning best film and best director at the Dublin Film Critics’ Circle awards this year and screening to great acclaim at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2011, it’s fair to say that Carmel Winters’ first foray into filmmaking has been a raging success. Having penned plays such as B For Baby for the Abbey Theatre, and taught creative writing in both Ireland and the UK, the Cork native says her long years of writing experience prepared her for directing her self-penned film. “All the defeat along the way, all the disasters and rejection and humiliations leave you quite bomb-proof!” she laughs.

Exploring the relationship between a caustic woman, her son and her father, Snap deals with very sensitive subject matter. When teenager Stephen kidnaps a toddler and is accused of torturing him, both his mother and the audience are forced to question what his motives are, what he’s capable of and what could have driven him to such an horrific crime.
One would think that writing about such harrowing themes would be a difficult, even draining experience, but Winters says she found it “buoyant”.
“This will sound strange,’ she says, “but when you’re writing well it’s a great experience. I’ve probably written more comedies than straight, tough drama. Even if you’re writing comedy and it’s not going well, you fall into the depths of despair. I didn’t find it tough because I knew I could trust my material. And I do feel quite blessed to be able to write something that isn’t often voiced, to bring something to the light that some people might be avoiding.”
Winters does wonder whether she could have written the script if she’d children herself.
“I think if you have children you want to take a more optimistic view of human nature. I wouldn’t like to think I wouldn’t have been able to write it, but emotionally it may have been more difficult. I also mightn’t have had the time to work on it for years without money if I had a child!”
While Aisling O’Sullivan’s performance as Stephen’s hard-nosed mother Sandra is phenomenal, it’s the late Mick Lally who provides the bravest performance. In one of his last acting roles before he died in August 2010, following a lengthy battle with emphysema, the Glenroe star plays a nameless alcoholic who Sandra coldly seduces and humiliates. Lally’s role is one of breath-catching pitifulness and – quite literally – naked vulnerability, showing a completely new facet of the actor’s skill. Winters says that Lally wasn’t in the least bit hesitant in taking on this revealing part.
“Quite the opposite! Everybody keeps asking me how I got Mick Lally to do it and I feel guilty taking the credit for his artistry. There was no coaxing or coercing. He was a very mischievous artist. He relished rocking the boat and certainly had no sense that the human body, at any stage of its lifespan, should be seen or experienced as shameful. He felt very strongly about that. So he played the role beautifully because he played it so honestly.”
While Lally’s spirit and love of the craft was still burning bright, by the time Snap was filming, he was already suffering badly from his debilitating lung disease.
“His health wasn’t great at the time so that affected how we worked. He literally did one take and as few shots as possible, because the scene was quite strenuous and he wouldn’t have been able to do take after take. He was a magnificent actor, there was no gap between him and the character. He read it, he got it, he did it. I think he’d love it. I’m so gutted he’s not around to see it and the reaction to it.”
Never once was Winters tempted to tone down the subject matter, make her characters more sympathetic or give a more uplifting, redemptive ending to her film.
“There’s been a few Irish films that have dealt with abuse, mainly in religious institutions. I’m so tired of abuse being sensationally dealt with, and with people not trusting their audience. They end up lying about the characters and doing them a great disservice in portraying the complexity of their story. The one thing that bugs the hell out of me is thinking that audiences need dumb material, and that they can’t handle honesty and truth – even if it is sometimes hard to watch.”

Snap is in cinemas from April 8.