Eva Husson is adding to her eclectic filmography. After tackling a racy teen sex drama with “Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)” and a true story about female resistance fighters with “Girls of the Sun,” the French filmmaker is set to direct a period pic. Olivia Colman and Odessa Young are among the stars signed on to “Mothering Sunday,” a drama produced by Number 9 Films. Deadline broke the news.
Penned by Alice Birch and set in 1924, the story follows Jane Fairchild (Young), “a maid in the Niven household, who has the day off to celebrate Mothering Sunday while Mr and Mrs Niven (Colin Firth and Colman) attend a lunch to celebrate the engagement of their neighbor’s only remaining son, Paul (Josh O’Connor), to Emma Hobday. Jane rejoices at her freedom on an unseasonably hot, beautiful spring day. But, she has no mother to go to,” the source details. “For almost seven years she has – joyfully and without shame – been Paul’s lover. Like the Nivens, Paul belongs to England’s old money aristocracy, whereas Jane was orphaned at birth. With the house conveniently empty, they can finally meet in Paul’s bedroom for the first time. Today will be their last as lovers. It is also the day that will mark the beginning of Jane’s transformation as the story unfolds through the hours of clandestine passion.”
World sales are being launched for the pic at the Cannes virtual market. Filming is expected to kick off this fall in the UK.
“It truly felt like the planets aligned when this wonderful screenplay, ‘Mothering Sunday’ somehow found its way to me. Alice Birch seemed to whisper in my ear, and I felt everything I’d done so far prepared me for this specific story,” said Husson. “It was a culmination of all that I am obsessed with in life: writing, sensuality, and pure cinema. I finished the script in tears, not from sadness, but because it cracked me open, like the most honest works do.”
Birch’s credits include “Normal People,” “Succession,” and “Lady Macbeth.”
Colman won an Oscar for “The Favourite.” “The Crown” and “Fleabag” are among her recent credits.
Young was last seen in Josephine Decker’s “Shirley” alongside Elisabeth Moss. Her other credits include “A Million Little Pieces” and “Assassination Nation.”
“Be fearless. Be pragmatic,” Husson urged when we asked her advice for women directors. “Be lucid: it is tough out there. Just be aware of it. Do not waste too much energy on feeling sorry for yourself — it won’t change a thing and that will backfire. Be aware that, whether you like it or not, you have a responsibility to all of the other women: be exemplary. That will go a long way for any younger woman coming after you. We are connected,” she emphasized. “Never apologize for your strength. And last but not least: always follow your guts and your values. The profession is violent. It’s just the nature of the beast, and the only way to keep your head high even in the darkest times — and they will come — is to know you did all of this for the right reasons: because you believed in it, and because it was necessary.”
