German filmmaker Nora Fingscheidt has been making quite the name for herself in recent years and in a very short period of time. 2019 put her on the map with the critically acclaimed “System Crasher,” which premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. Hollywood barely let her catch her breath and came knocking. She quickly directed “The Unforgivable” for Netflix, starring Sandra Bullock, in 2021 and returns this year with “The Outrun,” starring yet another globally renowned name in Saoirse Ronan.
Based on Amy Liptrot’s 2016 memoir of the same name, “The Outrun,” co-written by Fingscheidt and the author, centers on a young woman recently out of rehab for alcoholism who returns to her childhood Scottish home. The drama is about a young woman, Rona (Ronan), who lived life on the edge in London but attempts to come to terms with her troubled past by returning to the wild beauty of Scotland’s Orkney Islands, hoping to heal.
“The Outrun” co-stars Paapa Essiedu (“Men”), Stephen Dillane (“Outlaw King”), and Saskia Reeves (“Slow Horses”). The drama was produced by Sarah Brocklehurst, Dominic Norris, Jack Lowden, and Saoirse Ronan.
“The Outrun” premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival to much acclaim and then subsequently screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Sydney Film Festival, and the New Zealand International Film Festival.
Here’s the official synopsis:
After a decade away in London, 29-year-old Rona (Saoirse Ronan) returns home to the Orkney Islands. Sober but lonely, she tries to suppress her memory of the events that set her on this journey of recovery. Slowly, the mystical land enters her inner world, and – one day at a time – Rona finds hope and strength in herself among the heavy gales and the bracingly cold sea. Based on the bestselling memoir by Amy Liptrot, who co-wrote the screenplay with Fingscheidt, THE OUTRUN is an acutely honest drama about addiction and recovery.
“The Outrun” is in theaters on October 4 via Sony Pictures Classics. Watch the new trailer below.