Curzon Artificial Eye is pleased to announce the UK premiere of MARY SHELLEY at the Edinburgh International Film Festival June 26th. The new feature charting the fiery love affair that inspired one of Gothic literature’s most influential works, arrives in UK cinemas July 6th, 2018.
The sophomore feature from Haifaa Al-Mansour, Academy Award nominated for her critically acclaimed, transgressive Wadjda, is the passionate story of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley’s extraordinary life and work and the first time her story has been told on screen. A portrait of a young woman finding her voice as a writer, and fighting to break free from society’s suffocating conventions, as she forms a fiery relationship with kindred radical poet, Percy Shelley, it follows the tumultuous events that lead to the creation of her classic Gothic novel. Elle Fanning (The Beguiled, The Neon Demon) stars as Mary, along with Douglas Booth (The Limehouse Golem, Loving Vincent) as Percy Shelley, Bel Powley (Diary of a Teenage Girl) as Mary’s half-sister Claire Clairmont, who forms a passionate relationship of her own with Shelley. Alongside, Tom Sturridge (Far From The Madding Crowd) stars as Lord Byron, with Ben Hardy (The Woman in White) as fellow Gothic novelist John Polidori, Stephen Dillane (Game of Thrones) as Mary’s father William Godwin along with Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey) and Ciara Charteris (Poldark)
Charting the interweaving relationships between Mary and Percy, and her sister Claire and Lord Byron, as well as following Mary’s journey to independence and freedom, it’s both a dramatic true account of a passionate love affair and an inspiring introduction to one of our greatest feminist role models.
When 16 year old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin runs away with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley her family are horrified. Young and passionately in love, at first she relishes life amongst the radical Romantics. But as time goes on, Percy’s betrayals and indiscretions begin to test their relationship. One day, on a trip to Lord Byron’s mansion in Geneva, Mary is challenged to write a ghost story. Drawing on her experiences of heartbreak and the dark side of humanity, she creates ‘Frankenstein’, a work that will shape the literary world for centuries.
This year marks the centenary of Frankenstein, marking 200 years since Mary Shelley had her archetypal novel published and fought for the right to have it correctly attributed to her authorship. Haifaa Al-Mansour channels her unique personal experiences as the first woman to direct a Saudi Arabian produced film with Wadjda to show how contemporary the themes of this story of a young woman fighting for the freedom to express herself still are.
