First look at Saoirse Ronan in Amy Liptrot memoir The Outrun revealed

The first look at Oscar-nominated Saoirse Ronan in The Outrun, an adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s best-selling memoir, was been revealed yesterday evening.

Working with director Nora Fingscheidt, Ronan stars as Rona, who returns to the wild Orkney Islands after more than a decade away following a stint in rehab.

Standing unstable on the island, she tries to come to terms with the addiction that has swallowed the last decade of her life. As she spends her mornings swimming in the bracingly cold sea, her days tracking Orkney's wildlife, and her nights searching the sky for the Merry Dancers, Amy discovers how the wild can restore life and renew hope.

First look at Saoirse Ronan in Nora Fingscheidt’s ‘THE OUTRUN,’ in which she plays a recovering alcoholic fresh out of rehab.https://t.co/rxsMPnOhCw pic.twitter.com/fBb1nNYmRO

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) November 1, 2022

The film also stars Emmy nominee Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You) and BAFTA winner Stephen Dillane (Alex Rider) alongside Ronan.

The Outrun was optioned by Brock Media’s Sarah Brocklehurst, who is developing and producing alongside Ronan, Jack Lowden and Dominic Norris under their recently founded banner, Arcade Pictures.

Liptrot’s memoir of the same name won the 2016 Wainwright Prize and the 2017 PEN Ackerley Prize and was a Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller. The book was translated into 15 languages, selling over 110,000 copies in the UK alone, and was added by publisher Canongate to its modern classics list, The Canons.

The Outrun by the Scottish writer and journalist began life as a series of nature columns. Liptrot described how the wildlife and landscape of those Scottish islands played a role in her recovery from severe alcoholism.

The book’s blend of connection with the natural world and unflinching open-heart surgery ploughed the first major furrow through. Her follow-up, The Instant, charts a year living in Berlin in the aftermath of the events on Orkney, and has been published in 2022 to great anticipation.

Saoirse Ronan's most recently released film in cinemas was See How They Run (2022).

The Outrun will be released in Irish cinemas in 2023.