6.8
Fresh out of rehab, Rona returns to the Orkney Islands—a place both wild and beautiful, right off the Scottish coast. Now 29 and after more than a decade of living life on the edge in London, where she both found and lost love, Rona attempts to come to terms with her troubled past. As she reconnects with the dramatic landscape where she grew up, memories of her traumatic childhood merge with more recent challenging events that have set her on the path to recovery.
Saoirse Ronan
Rona
Paapa Essiedu
Daynin
Nabil Elouahabi
Samir
Izuka Hoyle
Gloria
Lauren Lyle
Julie
Stephen Dillane
Andrew
Saskia Reeves
Annie
Naomi Wirthner
Amanda
Tony Hamilton-Croft
Gary
Posy Sterling
Rita
Danyal Ismail
Pascal
Scott Miller
Young Andrew
Seamus Dillane
James the Barman
Paul Kulik
Middle aged man
Freya Evans
Young Rona
David Garrick
Bouncer Dave
Aniya Sekkanu
Dr. Rasamalar
Liam Smith
Young Orcadian Man
Eilidh Fisher
Bible Group Evie
Jacqui Hirst
Bible Group Ingrid
Nicola Kilpatrick
Bible Group Gina
Dawn Johnson
Bible Group Kirsty
Jack Rooke
Lukas
David Hills
Lab Supervisor
Alexandre Afjool
Ivan
Gillian Dearness
Elena
Tim Dodman
Simon
Louise McMenemy
Young Annie
Olivia Knight
Newborn Rona
Jack Knight
Newborn Rona
Jamie Crew
Rehab Steven
Isabelle Roux
Rehab Tara
Ammar Younis
Rehab Aahil
Conrad Williamson
Jack
Kevin Shaw
Farmer Edward
Kristen Norquoy
Farmer Catrina
Kyle Mackay
Farmer Robin
Ellis Tait
Farmer Amy
Sweyn Hunter
AA Group James
Paul Rendall
AA Group Stephen
Linn Johansson
Female Stranger
Matthew Coulton
Male Stranger
Martin Gray
Calum
Paul Kulik
Middle Aged Man
Aidan Smith
Young Artist Inis
Robbie Fraser
Ferry Announcer
Dave Gray
Radio Announcer
Director, Writer
Nora Fingscheidt
Book, Writer
Amy Liptrot
Writer
Daisy Lewis
September 20, 2024
7
If you are fan of the very adaptable Saoirse Ronan then you'll probably love this - she throws just about everything into the role of "Rona". She has returned to her mother's home in Orkney to recover from a fairly torrid time of booze and drugs in London. The timelines are threaded together to drip feed us the causes of her current predicament whilst looking at her own efforts to get - and stay - clean. Of course, there are domestic issues at home too with her father suffering from bi-polar disorder and her mother having turned to religion which add to the turbulence of her life. In the end, she takes a job working on a remote island for the RSPB trying to find an example of the once plentiful but now rare corn crake. With the weather closing in on her small cottage and her determined to get well again despite the familial pressures, the woman has her work cut out for her. Can she stay the course or is a relapse inevitable? It is a strong effort from Ronan here, and Andrew Dillane also delivers quite effectively as her dad - especially once the film has got up an head of steam and the characters more fully develop. The photography of this sometimes beautiful and other times bleak environment adds really well to the overarching sense of the claustrophobic as the story plays out. Her self-imposed isolation flying in the face of her naturally more gregarious personality. It doesn't try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to the treatment techniques and struggles involved here, but it does provide us with a powerfully character-led drama that must have cost a fortune in hair dye and doesn't offer any rose-tinted solutions.