“7 Miles Away,” Starring Lucy Halliday, Tells a Coming-of-Age Story Filled with Grief, Music and Friendship
Carol Morley's adaptation of her semi-autobiographical novel about her teenage years near Manchester also stars Gemma Whelan and Aidan Gillen. It will screen at the BFI London Film Festival.
British writer-director Carol Morley (Dreams of a Lifetime, The Fall) has adapted her moving semi-autobiographical novel 7 Miles Out, about her teenage years in Stockport, near Manchester, during the 1970s and 1980s, into a coming-of-age journey for the big screen.
Lucy Holliday (Blue Jean, Covenants) stars as Anne, who struggles with grief after the death of her beloved father, played by Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones, Peaky Blinders, Queer as Folk), and finds escape in the New Wave punk movement and her friendship with Hel. Gemma Whelan ( Game of Thrones , Killing Eve ) plays her mother in the film, which has a period-appropriate soundtrack full of Joy Division, New Order, The Raincoats and more. 7 Miles Out is as much a story about finding your voice and creativity as it is an anthem about friendship.
CNN targets cord cutters in Canada with streaming launch
Sally Rooney's books have been pulled from UK shelves amid controversy over support for the Palestinian cause
When Ian Curtis, the frontman of local band Joy Division, kills himself and leaves town, everything falls apart for Hel, who turns to alcohol and casual sex. But reviving the past and a rediscovered cassette tape may be the way to a fresh start.
The original songs performed in the film were written by Morley and Carly Paradis, who also composed the music. Morelli's frequent collaborator Agnes Godard (The Fall, Beau Travail) is the cinematographer, with editing by Raluca Petr.
(Time) travel back decades with the movie trailer here.
7 Miles Out has its world premiere in the official LFF competition on Saturday and will be released in UK and Irish cinemas in 2027.
Morley spoke with THR about the challenges and joys of adapting a personal novel, finding the right person to play it, and why, despite the suicide, sadness, and other darkness, 7 Miles Out also has a lot of joy and hope.
When did you realize or decide to turn your book into a movie?
I wrote the book when I was making Dreams of a Lifetime because we were having a hard time financing that movie and I was completely frustrated. So I wrote the book, and it felt like it was complete—in the sense of putting it away after I looked at that part of my life and made something creative out of it.
During Covid, Michael Winterbottom interviewed me for a book he wrote about British filmmakers. And he said, "I read 7 Mile Out. You should make it into a movie." And that got me thinking about that possibility.
I adapted Martin Amis's Night Train out of the blue, and what I realized doing this adaptation is how far you stray from the original source. I think you should move the literary stuff for the screen.
With 7 miles out, I thought it would be easier since it was my own book, but it wasn't. It was harder in a way, and in some ways, it was easier because I just looked at other events that had happened, so it was very authentic. But still, let's turn it into a script and not have so many characters or episodes. You are really trying to make a straight line.
What is nice compared to the book is that with the movie you have real voice and music and dialogue. And you have actors, performances, and locations. So you don't imagine it in the same way. In terms of my book and movie, the themes are the same, but the parts change.
Let's talk a little more about the topics and your take on them. Grief and community are the main themes of 7 Miles Out…
Yes, with grief, it is the notion that mourning is not instantaneous. I don't think you can get away with it, you bring it into your life. So I really wanted to make a film where tragedy and grief is not something you get over, but something you live with. It can make you think more deeply about the world and lead to creative actions like music in a film. I really wanted to look at it in a way that's probably a lot more complicated than it's looked at elsewhere.
And socially, I remember early on, I was really interested in looking at different generations as well. The tendency of young people is to consider themselves the center of the world. But they are surrounded by other people they relate to. So it's also about the sense of community in a small town.
Yes, this movie is like a smaller version of the bigger world…
Yes, it's like a microcosm of the world, and what goes on in that community reflects the larger world.
How did you come to combine the darker sides with the brighter aspects and hope?
I often look at quite dark subjects. For example, Dreams of a Lifetime is about a woman who has been lying dead in her apartment for three years. And I remember people saying at the time that it was too optimistic. I felt strangely happy and they couldn't understand why. I think they thought it was just bitter. But he celebrated a life. And it also made people think about friendship and how they can make a difference in the world.
With 7 miles out, I wanted people to feel the light at the end. The film specifically talks about suicide, which was very taboo at the time. Even now, it is very difficult to talk about it, so I wanted to make a film about it. Suicide is one of the biggest causes of death for young men under the age of 50 in the world. So I wanted to look at suicide in a way that people can talk about later, but not feel completely powerless.
The young woman in the film made music and wrote songs and was able to express herself in a different way, it was very clear to find her voice, which was very important. Instead of feeling sad at the end, I hope you feel like you've gone through a lot of emotions, and at the end you feel light and enlightened, and feel like you can go and process some of your feelings. It was more about catharsis.
The movie 7 Miles Out is based on my father and his suicide. When I was growing up and when he went to the psychiatrist, he was fine because he could show himself. In my research on suicide, [I've found] people who are suicidal often make the decision weeks in advance and seem happy because they've solved something. So people say, "I saw him the other day and he looked happy, so I couldn't believe it." That's why I think I'm making films about the idea of what people show the world and what they're really inside, which can't always be said.
I cast the actors with Shaheen Baig, the casting director, and we decided to do a massive open casting call in Stockport, and 450 people turned up. With younger actors, they posted videos. Many of the actors are first-timers. They've never done anything, and I think that's very exciting.
I had seen Lucy Holliday in Blue Jean. We did an interview with Zoom because he was filming in Canada and we really hit it off. But for me, it's all about meeting them. So we met at Shaheen offices and talked for about two hours. Shaheen entered once and said: Is everything good? I just felt this energy and his ability to [express different layers]. So, as soon as I saw him, he was it for me.
Aidan, I actually had one briefly, and I went up to him [at another event] and said, "I met you once. Are you in a movie for 10 minutes?" I said we will send the script to his agent. And then his friend called and said: Aidan wants to be in touch. So I ended up meeting Aidan the following week, and he had read it and wanted in. Aidan talked to my brother and my brother said afterwards that it was the best conversation he had ever had. Aidan wanted to talk to my brother about my dad because my brother is nine years older than me, so Aidan really wanted that perspective.
And strangely enough, with Gemma Whelan, what I found out was that the first thing she did was my short film Dancing Madness [in which she appeared as a nun]. So, I continue, "I discovered you." And he says, "I set you up."
So, we had the core cast. And then Casper Hilton-Hill (Peaky Blinders: The Immortal, Fierce Man) is brilliant as Ann's brother.
Where did you film and were there any particularly difficult scenes to film?
We were on a very tight budget, so I knew I would never be able to do a reshoot or pickup. I should have taken it all then. So if it rained, we would shoot in the rain. Now, the rain never appears as much as it actually does in the film. So filming in the rain was really hard because you have to protect the equipment and the actors get wetter than they look. We shot everything within a 15 minute radius in Stockport.
Agnes Godard had never been to Stockport, so I love it. He saw it through a different lens and so our combination was good. I love working with Agnes. He calls me "dangerous girl" because I like to be in the moment. I have a plan, but end up changing it in minutes if I notice something
And all the songs you see people singing are all sung live. I wanted that live feel, which was very challenging, but we did a lot of preparation. None of those girls could play. Lila [Entwistle, who plays Hel] picked up the bass and looked like she could play it. And he did it because it was so simple because the idea of punk was that anyone could play. And everyone went after it.
7 Miles Out is set in a very specific time and place, but people in other parts of the world seem to easily relate to the underlying themes and emotions. What do you think?
A filmmaker said you can make a film about a village that is universal. If you make a film where you convey emotion first and foremost, it will connect with everyone. Personally, I'm not into nostalgia. I'm into authenticity so it's a really good thing to look at things that have happened to you personally to recognize that authenticity.
When I made a film called The Alcohol Years a long time ago, which was a documentary about Manchester, I noticed that people in Melbourne and America were writing. People in Australia said it was just like Melbourne and people in the US said it was just like New York. I think that music has the ability to really transcend place.
I really want to work in a genre that I haven't worked in yet. I definitely have something in mind that could be intergenerational, working with young people and older people, in a time where I've never worked before and where I've never worked before. I never want to repeat myself.
Harvey Keitel trashed "Bad Lieutenant" before giving one of his best performances.