1 October 2025
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
Re-Creation
The Trial of Ian Bailey
The new film from six-time Academy Award™ Nominee Jim Sheridan, co-directed by David Merriman.
Followed by West Cork Murder: 2025 Case Analysis featuring directors Jim Sheridan and David Merriman, hosted by Jennifer Forde from West Cork Podcast, the definitive series centred around the murder of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier.
Releasing exclusively at Omniplex Cinemas, Friday October 3, 2025.
89 mins. IFCO: 12
Re-Creation: The Trial of Ian Bailey is directed by Jim Sheridan and David Merriman. Starring Vicky Krieps, Jim Sheridan, Aidan Gillen, Colm Meaney,
and John Connors.
“Re-Creation: The Trial of Ian Bailey offers a sharp and unsettling portrait of just how fragile the boundary can be between fact, speculation and media-driven myth.” Independent.ie
“A skillful blend of “12 Angry Men” and the exciting beats of a true-crime podcast.” Variety
“In the end, it is us, the viewer, who is really a 13th juror in that room, to decide for ourselves what is the dividing line between guilt and innocence.” Deadline
“The case is real; the trial is not. However, in this fictional chamber, constructed from real police records, forensic reports, and investigative transcripts, the conversations are disturbingly plausible…What follows is less a courtroom drama than a forensic psychological excavation of how justice can be shaped by personal experience, unconscious bias, and emotion.” Next Best Picture
Re-Creation: The Trial of Ian Bailey is the new film from six-time Academy Award™ Nominee Jim Sheridan, co-directed by David Merriman. This fictional dramatisation follows what might have happened in a jury room should the entire body of evidence have been made available in the West Cork murder of French filmmaker Sophie Toscan Du Plantier. The film is followed by West Cork Murder: 2025 Case Analysis with Jim Sheridan and David Merriman, hosted by Jennifer Forde of the acclaimed West Cork Podcast, the groundbreaking series that centred around the murder. The follow up reveals new evidence, damning audio recordings never before released and brings the case up to the present moment as DNA forensic results from the USA are awaited.
In Re-Creation: The Trial of Ian Bailey, the audience are invited into a jury room where twelve fictional jurors are gathered to examine the real case files in the murder of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier in West Cork in 1996. These include actual police reports, forensic data, and just some of the investigative transcripts that exist around the case. Twelve voices scrutinize the evidence, examine mistruths, and confront bias in the decades long investigation into one single solitary individual for this brutal murder.
Re-Creation: The Trial of Ian Bailey presents difficult and inconvenient questions around this highly controversial case. It explores whether any justice has been served in the killing of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier, and strongly suggests that the accused spent a lifetime vilified by authorities, media and public alike for a crime which he likely did not commit. If this is indeed the truth, what remains is the terrifying prospect that a vicious killer has enjoyed their freedom for more than 28 years. Re-Creation: The Trial of Ian Bailey, and the evidence of coercion, obfuscation and manipulation that comes to light in it and the discussions in West Cork Murder: 2025 Case Analysis ultimately leaves viewers to make up their own minds.
Directed by Jim Sheridan and David Merriman, Re-Creation: The Trial of Ian Bailey stars Vicky Krieps, Jim Sheridan, Aidan Gillen, John Connors and Colm Meaney as Ian Bailey.
Re–Creation: The Trial of Ian Bailey opens exclusively at Omniplex Cinemas across Ireland from Friday, 3 October
https://www.jimsheridan.ie/Re-Creation: The Trial of Ian Bailey