Cillian Murphy's 'Small Things Like These' Will Explore a Painful Chapter in Irish History

Cillian Murphy won an Oscar for portraying the American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in the Best Picture-winning film, Oppenheimer. But for his next major role --- and one that sure looks likely to earn him some additional awards buzz --- he's going back to his Irish roots.

Lionsgate has set U.S., U.K., and Irish release dates for Small Things Like These, a prestige adaptation of Claire Keegan's bestselling novel of the same name. Set in 1985 in the small Irish town of New Ross, the film follows the story of Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and father whose frequent deliveries to the local convent force him to confront some of the darker events taking place there, as well as his own childhood trauma. 

In the film's trailer, we see Bill watch as a young woman is forced inside the convent against her will, an event that's just the tip of the iceberg of abuse taking place behind its walls. Religious institutions like this (which were predominantly run by the Catholic Church) were often known as Magdalene Laundries (or Magdalene Asylums depending on who you ask) and essentially incarcerated "fallen women" of various stripes in Ireland during the 18th and 19th centuries. While most of these women were pregnant with illegitimate children they were later forced to give up, the concept of "fallen woman" was expansive enough to include those guilty of any sort of sexual sin, from adultery and prostitution to same-sex attraction. 

If this subject matter sounds familiar, it's because the generational trauma of the Magdalene Laundries was also the subject of the recent Showtime drama The Woman in the Wall, in which Ruth Wilson played a woman whose life was forever changed after she gave up her daughter at one of the laundries mother and baby homes.

Here's the film's synopsis. 

Small Things Like These takes place over Christmas in 1985, when devoted father and coal merchant Bill Furlong discovers startling secrets kept by the convent in his town, along with some shocking truths of his own. The film reveals truths about Ireland's Magdalene laundries -- horrific asylums run by Roman Catholic institutions from the 1820s until 1996, ostensibly to reform "fallen young women." 

Alongside Murphy, the film also stars Emily Watson (The Third Day), Ciaran Hinds (Belfast), Michelle Fairley (Gangs of London), Clare Dunne (Kin), Abby Fitz (Redemption), Joanne Crawford (Blue Lights), Eileen Walsh (Patrick Melrose), Mark McKenna (The Tourist), and Amy De Bhrun (Sanctuary: A Witch's Tale).

“It’s so seemingly simple, but it’s incredibly complex, actually, when you look at it,” Murphy told Vanity Fair. “It’s massively intertwined with Irish people, our history and our culture and trauma and all of that stuff. I feel that sometimes art is a gentler way of addressing or confronting that than, perhaps, government reports or academic papers.”

Peaky Blinders' director Tim Mielants helms the film, from a script by Edna Walsh (Hunger). The film is produced by Murphy and his Big Things Films partner Alan Moloney. It was financed and produced by Artists Equity, the studio run by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Producers include Murphy, Maloney, and Damon, as well as Catherine Magee and Drew Vinton. Affleck, Kevin Halloran, and Michael Joe executive produced.

Small Things Like These had its world premiere earlier this year at the Berlin Film Festival, where Watson won the Silver Berlin Bear prize for Best Supporting Performance. It will arrive in theaters on Friday, November 8.