Lionsgate dropped a trailer for Small Things Like These, its upcoming film adaptation of Claire Keegan’s novel.
Keegan’s book, published in 2021 by Grove, tells the story of Bill Furlong, an Irish coal merchant who discovers troubling secrets at a local convent that also functions as a training school for girls and laundry business. The novel is based on the real-life Magdalene asylums, institutions where women were forced to work in cruel conditions without pay.
The film adaptation is written by Enda Walsh (Hunger) and directed by Tim Mielants (Will). Cillian Murphy, who won an Academy Award for Oppenheimer, stars as Bill Furlong; other cast members include Eileen Walsh (The Magdalene Sisters), Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves), and Michelle Fairley (Game of Thrones). Murphy is a producer of the film alongside Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
The trailer opens with Murphy arriving in his home, greeting his daughters and washing his coal-stained hands. He is then shown bringing a delivery of coal to a convent, where he watches grimly as a young woman is forced by her mother to go inside. “Mommy, please!” she cries. “I’m not going in there.”
In a voiceover, a child says, “I will live in the past, the present, and the future. I will not forget the lessons that they teach.” In another scene, a woman tells Murphy, “You’d want to watch what you say about what’s there. People can make things difficult for you.”
Small Things Like These is scheduled to premiere in theaters on Nov. 8.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
