Herself

Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia!) reunites with her Shakespeare collaborators, Clare Dunne and Harriet Walter, for a stirring drama about a woman who refuses to give up.

Sandra (Dunne) is a Dublin-based Mum struggling to provide her two young daughters with a safe, happy home after leaving an abusive relationship. When the local council cannot provide that home, she decides to build one herself. With very little income and a menacing ex-husband, Sandra calls on the support of a new community of friends, including her employer Peggy (Walter).

As a first time screenwriter (working in collaboration with Malcom Campbell), Dunne impresses with her finely-crafted story of darkness and eventual triumph. And as an actor she energises this drama, utterly convincing as a woman beaten down by circumstance and failures of the State, but defiantly refusing to give up.