Dramatising the real-life story of Ann Lovett, a 15-year-old girl who died in childbirth in a grotto in Granard, Co. Longford in 1984, Ciaran Creagh’s film revisits a tragedy that shook the nation to its core.

Ann (Zara Devlin) prepares for the imminent arrival of her baby.  She has managed to conceal her pregnancy from her mother (Eileen Walsh), family and friends and now, alone and frightened, she looks for a secret place to give birth.

With present-day Boyle, Co. Roscommon standing in for 1980s Granard, the film perfectly conjures the physical and psychological claustrophobia of small town life.

Featuring powerful performances from Devlin and Walsh, Ann is a chilling recreation of a time when social and sexual mores were less enlightened and a culture of shame and secrecy prevailed.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn