Newcastle University academic’s Virginia Woolf film gets national cinema release

Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day, directed by BAFTA-nominated filmmaker Dr Tina Gharavi, opens in cinemas nationally on Friday 19th June after being filmed at a number of North East landmarks.

The comedy-drama is based on Virginia’s 1919 novel and follows Katharine Hilbery, an ambitious astronomer determined to forge her own path while resisting the expectations of love and marriage. Set in Edwardian England, the story unfolds against a backdrop of scientific progress, the suffragette movement, and changing social attitudes.

The film stars American actress Hayley Bennett as the protagonist, alongside Jack Whitehall, Jennifer Saunders, Timothy Spall, and Lily Allen.

Several scenes were shot across the North East, with locations including Neville’s Hall, Beamish Open Air Museum, the Lit & Phil, and Ryhope Engines Museum in Sunderland standing in for early 20th century England.

Tina, a reader in screenwriting and film at Newcastle University’s School of English, said bringing one of Britain’s most celebrated authors to the screen has been “an extraordinary dream.”

She said: “I have always wanted to tell stories about women who resist the roles imposed on them, and Woolf understood that impulse better than almost any writer. The question at the heart of this film — must a woman choose between love and ambition? — is as alive today as it was in 1910.”

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Tina mentioned how Virginia’s reputation as a literary innovator had also influenced the style of the adaptation.

“Virginia Woolf was a Modernist. She was always thinking about how society was evolving and how differently to tell stories,” she said. “So, it made sense to make a film that was perhaps more radical in the way that it told its tale.”

Tina is now preparing for her next project, a biopic of Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad titled Forough: Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season, which is written and directed by herself, and executive produced by acclaimed filmmaker Wes Anderson.

Featured image via Newcastle University

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