Lodge Kerrigan 

USA/France
 

MK himself, Marin Karmitz – a man of such calm it is hard to imagine he's a producer – is behind both films and says he is delighted that Claire Dolan is in competition, "because it's a completely French production by an American director." 

Karmitz insists he has found the world's next great director in Kerrigan. "I think there is a new generation of directors in the US of great quality – Kerrigan is, for me, a director who is at the level of Kieslowski." High praise from the man who produced the late auteur's triumphant trilogy, Bleu, Blanc, Rouge. 

If Kerrigan is a latter-day Kieslowski, his heritage is certainly different.  Born in 1964 in New York, Kerrigan started his career as a cameraman and, in 1993, produced, wrote and directed his first feature, Clean Shaven. The film was presented in Un Certain Regard at the 1994 Cannes Festival. 

Kerrigan's association with MK2 came about through the intermediary of Jacques Audiard, whom he met during a writer's workshop in Bordeaux, France.  Audiard was impressed by the script for Claire Dolan and passed it to Thomas Bidegain at MK2, who then brought it to Karmitz's attention. "I owe a lot to Jacques not only for his support and confidence... but also for his advice, which really contributed to making the film better," recalls Kerrigan.

Echoing Karmitz, Kerrigan also underlines the harmonious note between director and producer, calling the relationship "a collaboration in the best sense of the word", and salutes Karmitz for his "perspicacity, his constructive critical comments and his immense experience, which helped considerably to clarify the film".

An in-depth character study of one woman's quest for understanding and a better life, the film focuses on an Irish prostitute in New York. Upon the death of her mother, Claire Dolan decides to leave the city and make a new start.  But, through her meeting with Elton, a cab driver who claims to want to build a family and a future together, she finds that she can truly count only on herself. 

Katrin Cartlidge, the British actress best known for her work in Mike Leigh's films Naked and Career Girls and Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves, plays the titular role.  Cartlidge, according to Karmitz is, "extraordinary" having indeed incited industry predictions that she will take the fest's best actress award.

The American, Vincent D'Onofrio, an actor always counted on to make interesting choices, plays Elton the cab driver.  Rounding out the principal cast is Colm Meaney, the Irish actor most recognisable to American viewers as engineer O'Brien on Star Trek: The Next Generation and roles in the Roddy Doyle trilogy of films, The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van.

Although the film is set in New York, Kerrigan says he chose to use primarily Europeans because, "there is a tendency in American independent film to always use the same actors, to such a point that it becomes difficult to see anything other than an actor interpreting a role rather than a true character in a film."

Shot to create an impression of claustrophobia and voyeurism, the film was born from an experience Kerrigan had during post-production on Clean Shaven. 

In 1993, editing close to Times Square, Kerrigan often saw prostitutes working the streets. "Many of them were pregnant, some almost showing. The sight of this shocked me at first, and even today I remember the visceral reaction I had," recalls Kerrigan. "I questioned myself about this reaction.  What was so shocking and morally unacceptable in the association of motherhood and prostitution? I realised that it was simply my own sexism. That was the genesis of the script."

Using this as a base, Kerrigan created Claire Dolan, an independent woman in a situation where she must face obstacles and uncertainties, which even at the end of the film she is not sure to overcome. Kerrigan calls her strength a "force which to me seems admirable." 
Continuing his relationship with MK2, the director is currently in pre-production on his next film for the company. Nancy Tartaglione