The Secret of Roan Inish
| The Secret of Roan Inish | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | John Sayles |
| Produced by | Sarah Green Maggie Renzi |
| Screenplay by | John Sayles |
| Based on | the children's novel Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry by Rosalie K. Fry |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Mason Daring |
| Cinematography | Haskell Wexler |
| Edited by | John Sayles |
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Production
company |
Jones Entertainment Group
Skerry Productions |
| Distributed by |
The Samuel Goldwyn Company (theatrical only) First Look Studios (Home Media) |
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Release date
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Running time
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103 minutes |
| Country | United States Ireland |
| Language | English Irish |
| Budget | $5.7 million |
| Box office | $6,159,269 |
The Secret of Roan Inish is a 1994 American/Irish independent film written and directed by John Sayles. It is based on the novel Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry, by Rosalie K. Fry.
It is centered on the Irish and Orcadian folklores of selkies—seals that can shed their skins to become human. The story, set on the west coast of Ireland, is about Fiona, a young girl who is sent to live with her grandparents and her cousin Eamon near the island of Roan Inish, where the selkies are rumored to reside. It is a family legend that her younger brother was swept away in his infancy and raised by a selkie. Part of the film takes place in Donegal.
The story is told from the point of view of Fiona (Jeni Courtney), a young girl who is sent to live with her grandparents in an Irish fishing village.
Her grandfather weaves tall tales about the family's evacuation from their home on the tiny island of Roan Inish and his great-great-grandfather, who once cheated death at the hands of the sea.
As she meets other villagers, Fiona hears more personal stories about an ancestor who married a beautiful, part-human/part-seal, and more about how the sea stole her baby brother, Jamie, during the departure from Roan Inish.
Later, Fiona believes that she has found Jamie romping in the grass on Roan Inish, and she must convince the family of her vision.
Although in the original novel the story takes place in Scotland, the filmmakers decided to have the film take place in Ireland for practical reasons. According to John Sayles in the director's commentary, most of the film was shot in Donegal, Ireland, with some scenes being filmed at the Isle of Mull in Argyll, Scotland.
It holds a 98% "Certified Fresh" and average rating of 7.8/10 on review site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 42 reviews. Critic Stephen Holden, film critic for The New York Times, liked the film's direction. He wrote, "The Secret of Roan Inish is the first film directed by Mr. Sayles that could be described as visually rhapsodic. Photographed by Haskell Wexler on Ireland's rugged northwestern seacoast, it is a cinematic tone poem in which man and nature, myth and reality flow together in a way that makes them ultimately indivisible."
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