Brooklyn director John Crowley has said that the upcoming adaptation of the Colm Tóibín bestseller is "very Irish", with audiences set to be surprised at how humour shares screen time with a heart-rending love story.
Filmed in Wexford, Dublin, Wicklow and Montreal, Brooklyn tells the story of Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan), who leaves 1950s Ireland for New York.
There she falls in love but later has to choose between her life in the US and her life back home. The cast also includes Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Jenn Murray and Eve Macklin.
The drama recently received its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, where Crowley told US website Indiewire that he tried to keep the irony of Tóibín's prose in mind when shooting, and to look for small flashes of character humour as a way of enhancing the "opposites within the film".
"It also sort of makes the descent into the sadness all the greater," said Crowley. "It's a very particular mix, laughter and tears, it's very Irish."
Brooklyn was the subject of a bidding war at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year when it had its world premiere, with Crowley describing the scramble to secure the distribution rights as "mind-blowing" and "very flattering".
The director and actress Ronan will attend the Irish premiere at Dublin's Savoy Cinema on Thursday October 22. Ronan and author Tóibín will also attended a special black-tie screening on Wednesday October 28 in Enniscorthy's Riverside Park Hotel. The majority of the film was shot in the Wexford town.
Brooklyn opens in Irish cinemas on Friday November 6.
