Magical movie set in West Cork opens nationwide this week

VIVIENNE De Courcy’s magical movie Dare to Be Wild, about two young environmentalists, inspired by the story of landscape designer Mary Reynolds, will be released nationwide this weekend.
It tells the story of Mary Reynolds, who won gold at the Chelsea Flower Show, at the tender age of 28, against all the odds. The movie featured on RTÉ’s Nationwide last week which is available to view on the RTÉ Player.
‘The theme of the film is “The Wild”, and how can we protect what is left, and regenerate what is lost,’ Vivienne told The Southern Star.
‘In the context of an unashamedly romantic story we pose some small doable truths and solutions – by inviting wild nature into that little place we control ourselves – our own gardens.’
The movie was an Audience Award winner at the Dublin International Film Festival.
It was at a screening in Skibbereen last year – during National Digital Week at the West Cork Hotel – that people had the chance to meet many of the local stars of the movie, including Christy Collard of Future Forests, which is located just outside Kealkil.
Christy is the man who helped Mary to source the wild ferns and other indigenous plants that featured so prominently in her award-winning garden.
‘It has been a privilege to shoot so much of Dare to be Wild around Roaring Water Bay – from the Fastnet Rock over Cape and Sherkin to the Beacon cliff where the whole story is encapsulated in a small poem to nature I wrote for Mary's voiceover,’ explained Vivienne. ‘We go from Lough Ine, Knockomagh Forest to  the Coomhola Valley  to Kealkil to Future Forests – and on to Ethiopia and the Chelsea Flower Show.’

See the trailer here: