The Irish Times: West Cork murder documentary seeks to avoid ‘cliché’ of female victim – director

John Dower, director of Sophie: A Murder in West Cork, said he hoped the three part documentary, which will be streamed on Netflix from Wednesday, June 30th, paints a full picture of Ms Toscan du Plantier who was murdered in West Cork in December 1996.

“I wanted to make this film because I thought it was an extraordinary story and particularly with Sophie’s family, I felt we could make something that genuinely feels a bit different and I passionately believe this,” he said.

“One of our contributors, who didn’t know Sophie, talks about how in crime fiction, right back to film noir and pulp fiction, the female victim is a cliché, she’s beautiful, she’s blonde and that is pretty much all she is.

“Well, Sophie was beautiful and she was blonde but she was also a very complex figure, she had a turbulent marriage, she had questionable relationships and she had this life very much in the public eye in France.

“But, in a sort of contradiction, she craved the solitude of West Cork - we wanted to show that in all complexity and that is something we have done and I think that is important to the story and to portraying her properly.”

Read the full article in the Irish Times.