"Lyra," an award-winning documentary, is set to open in UK and Irish cinemas on November 4.
"Lyra," directed by BAFTA-winning Alison Millar and executively produced by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s HiddenLight Productions, is a beautiful and heartfelt film about the life and death of the internationally renowned Northern Irish investigative journalist Lyra McKee.
Raised in working-class, war-torn Belfast, Lyra McKee went on to highlight the consequences of the Troubles, seeking justice for crimes that had been forgotten since the Good Friday Agreement.
Her murder by dissident Republicans the day before Good Friday in April 2019 sent shockwaves across the world.
Using hours of voice recordings from Lyra’s own mobile, computer, and dictaphone, the documentary, which won the Audience Award at the Cork Film Festival, seeks answers to her senseless killing through Lyra’s own work and words. The result is a complex picture of Northern Ireland’s political history, bringing into sharp focus the ways in which the 1998 Good Friday agreement – with its promised end to violence for future generations – has struggled to be fully realized.
Congratulations to the Audience Award Winners of the 66th Cork International Film Festival! 🙌
Voted for by you, the audience ⚡️
We're proud to announce that the Feature Audience Award goes to the beautiful and moving film 'Lyra', by Alison Miller (@ericastarling1)✨#CIFF2021 pic.twitter.com/jqWjTDGvXA
— Cork International Film Festival (@CorkFilmFest) November 23, 2021
Speaking about the cinema release, director Alison Millar said: “Thanks to Wildcard Distribution, we are delighted to be able to share the incredible Lyra with the world. Alongside projecting Lyra McKee as a 'fearless investigative journalist, determined and tenacious, honest in her approach' I wanted this film to also capture the great warmth and infectious humor of the person I'd known for so many years.”
She continued, “Through the use of her voice recordings - enabling us to have her narrate her own story - home footage and her remarkable writing, I hope Lyra will inspire and introduce a new generation to her work and the story of her homeland, the turbulently beautiful Northern Ireland, of which she wrote so much about.
"I've made many films about Northern Ireland - its people and its past - but with this film, with Lyra, it's different - with her, this time, it's personal.”
"Lyra" was produced by Jackie Doyle and Alison Millar for Erica Starling Productions and executively produced by Siobhan Sinnerton, Edward Watts, Greg Darby, Andrew Eaton, Louisa Compton, and Hillary and Chelsea Clinton with funding from Northern Ireland Screen in association with TG4. Music for the film was scored by the Ivor Novello Award-winning David Holmes, Mark McCauley was the cinematographer on the project and it was edited by the British Independent Film Award-winning Chloe Lambourne.
You can watch the trailer for "Lyra" here:
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