Fleapit revisited:Rose Plays Julie.

Who are we? Where do we come from? What makes us who we are? Are we even the person we think are? All of these questions are asked in Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy's emotional, disturbing (in places), and spellbinding new film Rose Plays Julie. 

The answers we get when we ask these questions are not always the ones we want. Even though they may be the ones we need. Rose (Ann Skelly) is a young veterinary student in Dublin whose adopted mother has died and has, somehow, discovered the identity of her biological mother and is determined, in a rather unorthodox fashion, to build a relationship with her.

She wants the warmth and love of her mother but, equally, she has a lot of questions she wants answering. Ellen (Orla Brady) is a successful actor (judging by the size of her house) who is separated from her husband and now lives with Rose's younger sister, Eva (Sadie Soderall). At first, she is reluctant to allow Rose into her orbit but, via some behaviour which in any other circumstances would be considered stalking, Rose gets to know her and she Rose.

Rose is less interested in the roles Ellen plays, costume dramas seem to be her speciality - at one point she mentions she's playing a "nun with psychic powers", and far more eager to learn who her father is and what the story is regarding her being put up for adoption. Not least because Ellen clearly did not do the same for Eva.

At first, Ellen is reticent to give Rose too much information regarding her father, fearful of dredging up memories long buried. But, soon, it is revealed that Rose's father is the successful and wealthy archaeologist Peter Doyle (Aidan Gillen). Rose employs the same methodology to enter Peter's life as she had done with Ellen but this time with an even more complex plan.

Rose, donning a wig and using her birth name Julie, offers her service on an archaeological dig that Peter is overseeing and soon a friendship blossoms between them with only Rose/Julie fully aware of the true nature of their relationship. Peter, meanwhile, appears trapped in an unhappy marriage with Teresa (Catherine Walker).

Rose Plays Julie touches on themes of identity, belonging, retribution, knowledge of oneself, and the acting out of multiple personas but it does so in an avant-garde, almost offhand, way that, at first, is difficult to get a grip on. When an event takes place, the camera turns away from the 'action' and instead captures the 'reaction', often in the steely, yet somewhat blank, eyes of Rose.

Her thousand yard stare and her often cold and mechanical way of communication suggests a person at some remove from their circumstances but it is to Skelly's, as well as the directorial team's, credit that we warm both to Rose as a person and to her 'mission'. One which mutates quite drastically as more information about her back story is revealed.

There are scenes of people crying alone in their cars and an inordinate amount of footage of the back of people's heads as they either walk away or we wait for them to turn around and face the consequences of their actions. Liminal spaces like car parks and hotel rooms feature heavily too in a film that never shies away from overt symbolism.

Scenes of dogs, cows, and horses being put down range from sad to squeamish but the veterinary euthanasia that Rose has to watch seems to in some way echo the situation she has found herself in (healthy animals are destroyed instantly and literally, healthy people are destroyed more slowly) and when Peter talks about his love of archaeology (his desire, he claims, is to uncover the past) you have a very real sense that his words will come back to haunt him.

It's hard to imagine a film like Rose Plays Julie being made, or at least reaching a wider audience, before the Me Too movement, and if these revenge and retribution dramas seem in danger of becoming a genre of their own then that is not indicative of a dearth of imagination amongst film makers but instead a clear signal that the problem is widespread, these stories have been ignored for too long, and that women won't stay quiet any longer.

In that respect alone, Rose Plays Julie is a worthwhile film but it's more than just mere polemic. It's an interesting, and unusual, story told in a captivating and offbeat fashion and, what's more - once you're invested in the characters, it packs a heavier emotional punch than you might initially expect.