Lisa Barros D’Sa’s debut feature film, “Cherrybomb,” co-directed with Glenn Leyburn, premiered at the Berlinale in 2009. Barros D’Sa and Leyburn’s second feature, “Good Vibrations,” opened the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

“Ordinary Love” will premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9. The film is co-directed by Leyburn.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

LBD: “Ordinary Love” is a story about the small moments and big challenges that make up the journey of a long-time love. It stars the incomparable Lesley Manville and Liam Neeson as a couple whose life together has brought them incredible difficulties as well as many infinitely precious days of everyday love. It celebrates the ordinary miracle of a connection between two people that gives them both life.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

LBD: I think you always look for something unique but somehow recognizable — some insight that hasn’t been communicated in quite that way before. This story felt unusual to us as it explored neither the beginning nor end of a love story, but the small moments and big challenges at the very heart of it. It’s unsentimental but full of joy and warmth between two people who have learned together how to weather everything life can throw. It focuses on the minutiae that make up a life and a love.

We were also drawn to depicting a vibrant relationship between two people who are passionately engaged with each other after a lifetime together — something we might celebrate in life but rarely see on screen.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

LBD: I’d like people to feel heartened by the potential for human connection that we celebrate in the film. It’s about a love that lasts, and a bond that survives change and loss to become deeper, without losing its humor and sparkle.

The characters of Joan and Tom are played with such vivid sensitivity by Lesley Manville and Liam Neeson; they take us through every beat of a journey that is remarkable but all too universal.

Vast numbers of people open the door into this world every day, and many live long lives alongside cancer — though sadly, of course, that is not true for everyone. I hope people watching the film get a sense of this everyday courage.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

LBD: It’s always just getting to the starting gate. With a wonderful script and extraordinary cast, not to mention the brilliant production team, it was perhaps easier than it sometimes is — still, it’s always a lot more likely not to happen than to happen. You’re just very grateful to get to do it at all.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

LBD: Our film was financed partly through public funding bodies in the UK, like the BFI and Northern Ireland Screen, who got involved at the development stage. Other financiers came on board later. It is always a major challenge to put that jigsaw together.

Some time ago, along with [co-director] Glenn Leyburn and [producer and composer] David Holmes, I decided to start a production company, Canderblinks Film, to get work we loved out into the world. “Ordinary Love,” which we developed from its beautiful script by Owen McCafferty, was one such project.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

LBD: I think I became a filmmaker by accident. As a writer of stories and scripts I was trying to get work produced, and like many others, realized the only way was to do it myself. So, having no production background, I got together with my partner Glenn Leyburn, who had worked in music videos, and we collaborated on our first short.

I surprised myself by discovering I loved the whole journey of directing: the energy on set, especially working with actors, and then the next magical storytelling stage of the edit.

We were subsequently given the chance to make a feature, and have made films together since.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

LBD: Best advice: “Hold your nerve,” from Andrew Eaton, producer of “Good Vibrations.” Essential on many occasions!

I was also told when starting out that working as a film director boils down to explaining yourself all the time, which didn’t sound that inspiring at the time, but I soon realized it applied to everything from finance meetings to talking about props on set. It means you have to refine and articulate your vision so you can communicate it effectively to everyone involved — and articulating it well means you ultimately tell it better and more deeply through all the elements of your film.

Worst advice is probably plenty I’ve given myself. One might be: put everything else on hold because a film is going to shoot in two months. You can get through years by being too optimistic about deadlines and start dates. You have to have plenty of irons in the fire.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

LBD: I work on a scheme with the BBC called Two Minute Masterpiece that supports young female filmmakers in making their first short films. Having encountered many such young female filmmakers over the past couple of years, I can safely say they don’t need much advice from me about finding a vision and working hard towards it. There’s talent and focus out there in spades.

I would just say: keep going, the world needs to hear more of your voices — and I would advise the rest of us to listen and watch.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

LBD: So many. “Le Bonheur” by the glorious Agnès Varda is one I re-watched recently. It’s so beautiful and lush, but eventually almost a horror film. I love the generosity of spirit, audacity, and endless sense of exploration that run through her films.

Also, lots of work by Claire Denis, and Larisa Shepitko’s “The Ascent.”

There’s a beautiful new documentary by Mark Cousins, “Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema,” which is a masterclass of cinema told entirely through the work of women directors. Through it I discovered the work of quite extraordinary directors like Kira Muratova and Pirjo Honkasalo. I would recommend it as a nice corrective to many other film histories!

W&H: What differences have you noticed in the industry since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?

LBD: I guess we’ve reached that point now where it’s quite hard to believe that certain excesses and crimes were allowed to take place. From being on set, and anecdotally, I am aware that parameters have shifted in terms of what’s accepted: I can think of behavior that was tolerated five years ago that would now be considered beyond the pale. And it is good that more female and more diverse voices are beginning to be allowed to claim their space. But there is evidently a very long way to go.