WHEN I FIRST read the script, I instantly knew that casting Nina was going to be key and was something that just had to be right.
There was no way that we could cast someone who wasn’t from Ukraine and felt morally obligated to find a Ukrainian actress to give the part the authenticity it deserved.
We didn’t know how we were going to find her, but knew we had to do whatever it would take to do so. As it transpired, finding Veronika Lukianenko ended up being one of the easiest casting decisions we had to make. It was just one of those occasions when things seemed to align perfectly and there she was.
The producer Lee Crowley and I attended Cannes in 2023, sat at a table and a group of young Ukrainian actors asked if they could use the plug next to us to charge their phones.
Veronika was one of the group, a couple of minutes into conversing with them Lee and I shared a look of, ‘This is our Nina’. While this sounds like a euphoric moment it was soon put into perspective when she had to leave the table upset, because a text message she received told her of some bad news from home. Although a sobering moment, it also told me that this girl also had her own story to share with the world.
We got Veronika to come to Ireland to do a screen test and if all went well, we would shoot a teaser reel. This gave me a chance to find out more about her story and how the war had impacted her personally. There is no doubt in my mind that these conversations had a massive effect on how I saw the script and essentially the film going forward.
I can remember listening to the little details like how the family she first stayed with would pull out all the stops to try and help her to settle in by doing everything for her and bringing her everywhere, when in fact, she was so overwhelmed with being in a new country and clearly traumatised by what had happened, she just wanted to be left alone.
However, the last thing she wanted to do was to seem ungrateful to the family that had just brought her into their home. This instantly influenced how I wanted the dynamic to be between Nina and the character of Mary Folan, played by Fionnuala Ní Fhlatharta, who had brought her in. This along with several other of Veronika’s experiences are peppered throughout the film.
I also discovered, which was something that really took me by surprise, was the fact that Veronika and I had a lot more in common than I had realised. I emigrated by myself when I was seventeen, albeit under totally different circumstances, I fully understood the loneliness behind closed doors or that feeling of lying awake at night upset wishing you were somewhere else.
I also appreciated the urge to find something to cling to in a totally new environment that would help you to quickly settle into what was going to be your new home for the foreseeable future. I hadn’t anticipated this.
While working on the teaser which was around Dec 2022, I remember being taken aback and quite proud of the fact that at the stage Ireland had taken in just shy of eighty thousand Ukrainian refugees, which I found quite staggering. Like everywhere else, and rightfully so, Ireland was caught up in the huge wave of goodwill and the massive outpouring of wanting to do something to help the Ukrainians fleeing the war. However, when I saw that number, I did begin to wonder how this was going to work in a practical sense, in a country that was quite clearly having a housing crisis. It seemed quite obvious to me that this decision was going to be on a collision course with certain factions of the Irish community.
Although our lead character Joe Walsh, played by leading character actor Joe Mullins, has some questionable comments at times, it was important he didn’t come across as a right-wing sympathiser. Joe’s views are born out of frustration with the situation he finds himself in, trapped in a place where he doesn’t want to be because of his sense of loyalty to initially the family business and now to his mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s.
Joe is stuck there in this sleepy village and to make matters worse he has accepted his fate, opting to blame everything else rather than take responsibility for his part in it.
In fact, Joe and Nina’s lives mirror each other perfectly, Nina is forced to leave her home to go somewhere she doesn’t want to be but makes the most of it, while Joe wishes he was somewhere else but is stuck at home blaming others for his situation.
I believe that The Line has come full circle in terms of how it will be perceived. Yes, one story element is a Ukrainian refugee coming to Ireland to flee the war. However, given the current climate, how this girl integrates into her new environment has become as important as where she has come from.
While this wasn’t the initial focus while shooting, it very much shines a light on how open or not we are to this situation and anyone in the country doesn’t have to go too far outside their parish to find a Nina. What is also equally as important and the most powerful theme that can be taken away from the film is that if we give people a chance, we can quickly discover that they are not so different from ourselves.
It is an honour to have the opportunity to screen The Line to its first audiences at the Dublin International Film Festival. Like every other film on display, it was a massive team effort and took a lot of hard work and dedication to get it over the line. We will enjoy our Premier on Monday and celebrate it like it’s the milestone that it is.
The Line will screen at Dublin International Film Festival on 26 February at 18:30 in the Lighthouse Cinema. Diff.ie for more information.
Danny McCafferty is an Irish film director. He directed for the first time when studying TV Production where he picked up a National Student Media Award for the short film Beans. Having worked as an Assistant Director for a number of years, so he could work closely with seasoned directors, he embarked on a Masters in Screenwriting at the renowned Huston Film School.
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