Re-Creation, the latest work from acclaimed Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan, will have its Luxembourg premiere on Sunday, September 21 at Ciné Utopia, as part of the closing night of the British & Irish Film Festival. Distributed locally by Tarantula Distribution, the film goes on general release across Luxembourg on September 24.
Ahead of the premiere, Today Radio's Melissa Dalton sat down with producer Fabrizio Maltese and three of the film's cast members: Maja Juric, Claire Johnston-Cauldwell, and Gilbert K. Johnston to discuss the unique process of bringing the story to screen, how improvisation played a substantial role in the filming process and the challenges of balancing fiction with real-life tragedy.
A Luxembourg–Ireland co-production directed by Sheridan alongside David Merriman, Re-creation revisits one of Ireland's most unsettling murder cases, the 1996 killing of French filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier. At the centre of the drama is British journalist Ian Bailey, long linked to the case but never convicted. Instead of a straightforward retelling, the film unfolds as a fictional jury deliberation, where twelve strangers must decide whether Bailey is guilty.
Inspired by classics like 12 Angry Men, the film uses the format of a jury room drama to ask probing questions: What shapes our sense of guilt or innocence? How do personal histories, prejudices, and emotions influence justice? The story reminds viewers, in Sheridan’s words and through Oscar Wilde's, that "the truth is rarely pure and never simple."
The film features a strong ensemble cast including Vicky Krieps, Aidan Gillen, and Colm Meaney, alongside an international mix of actors who bring their own perspectives to the jurors. It's a drama not just about evidence, but about how quickly assumptions form, and how difficult it can be to challenge them.
Sheridan himself is no stranger to stories that cut to the heart of justice and identity. With six Academy Award nominations and two Oscars for My Left Foot (1989), his filmography also includes In the Name of the Father and In America, works that solidified him as one of Ireland's most influential voices in cinema.
With Re-creation, Sheridan and Merriman offer audiences not a verdict, but an invitation: to sit with doubt, to listen more deeply, and to consider how truth is shaped both inside and outside the courtroom.
Listen to the full interview on RTL Play and check out the British Irish Film Festival to find out more information about the premiere on September 21.
