‘Small Things Like This’ Trailer: Cillian Murphy Starring

Oscar winner Cillian Murphy plays a coal merchant and a father haunted by secret abuse at a local Catholic Church-approved convent in the trailer for Little things like these from Lionsgate ahead of a November 8 theatrical release.

While delivering coal to the convent, Bill Furlong (Murphy) witnesses a mother forcing her young daughter inside against her will. “Mommy, please! Stop! No, please! I’m not going,” she screams as Furlong silently watches in the short teaser.

The action takes place in 1985, just before Christmas. Furlong, while making new deliveries to the convent, is forced to confront his own unspoken grief and childhood trauma, leading him to make a moral choice. “You have to be careful what you say, about what’s going on,” Furlong warns in the trailer as he witnesses firsthand the atrocities unfolding at the local convent.

Adapted from Claire Keegan’s award-winning short story, the backdrop to Little things like ThThis is the true story of the Magdalen Laundries, asylums and workhouses run by the Catholic Church in Ireland, allegedly for the purpose of employing and educating “fallen women.”

The Magdalen Laundries were eventually closed in 1996, followed by a highly publicized and investigated scandal in Ireland involving the Catholic Church. Enda Walsh wrote the adaptation of the film’s screenplay by director Tim Mielants, which also starred Emily Watson.

The Hollywood Reporter‘s review from the Berlin Film Festival, where the film served as the opening night presentation, reads: “The actor’s work here could hardly be more in contrast to his fine characterization of the soft-spoken but commanding title character in Oppenheimerwith the hint of arrogance that irritates so many of his peers. Bill is a reserved but deeply decent man who seems to have spent his adult years taking up as little space as possible. Murphy describes him with charged silences and pained gestures, his pale, expressive eyes conveying a world of pain, of trauma brought to the surface by a startling experience.

Little things like ThThe film is produced by Murphy and his Big Things Films partner Alan Moloney, and was financed and produced by Artists Equity, the studio run by Ben Affleck and Murphy. Oppenheimer co-star Matt Damon.

In addition to Murphy, Moloney and Damon, Catherine Magee and Drew Vinton also produced the film. Affleck, Kevin Halloran and Michael Joe served as executive producers.