'New Sophie film may not solve murder but it will get people talking again'
The shocking killing of French beauty Sophie Toscan du Plantier 29 years ago is the unsolved murder that won't go away.
The whole country wants to know did eccentric English journalist Ian Bailey, who lived in the west Cork area, brutally take her life or is the killer still out there roaming the countryside here or in France, free as a bird.
The truth is after all these years, nobody really knows. Ian Bailey died from a sudden heart attack 18 months ago and went to his grave proclaiming his innocence.
So far there has never been any hard evidence such as DNA produced to tie him to the murder and the finger of blame against him is largely based on circumstantial evidence contrived with hearsay.
Sophie's heartbroken family are convinced Bailey is the man and that the verdict of a dodgy French court in 2019 which found him guilty of the young mother's murder in absentia, proved that he did it.
The problem is a star witness in the whole saga, former Schull postmistress Marie Farrell was never called to give evidence at the French show trial.
She initially put Bailey in the frame by telling Gardai she saw him washing blood off his boots at Kealfadda Bridge, not far from the murder scene on the night she died.
But years later, she retracted her statement and admitted she lied.
A large amount of the evidence given in the French proceedings was hearsay and would never have been admitted in an Irish court of law.
For whatever reason, Sophie's family will not listen to any suggestions that someone else aside from Ian Bailey, might have killed her.
Now they are annoyed with the respected filmmaker Jim Sheridan, whose new movie on the story, Re-Creation opened in New York last Sunday night and will be screened publicly over the coming weeks.
Based in a courtroom setting, the film focuses on what would have happened if an Irish jury deliberated on the case and presents all the current facts known about the murder.
It has an all-star Irish cast including Colm Meaney and Aidan Gillen. Sheridan also claims there is some new evidence.
Sophie's family are extremely critical of the release of the movie at this moment in time when there are still two parallel Garda investigations into the horrendous crime ongoing.
The cops are also working with the FBI and new technology to try and identify some old blood samples taken from the murder scene.
Sophie's uncle Jean-Pierre Gazeau said the release of the film is "ethically questionable".
While the family fully acknowledge Jim Sheridan's reputation as a gifted and accomplished filmmaker, they regret "he has chosen to apply his talent to a project based on questionable evidence". He also said Bailey is still a person of interest in the case to the Gardai.
He fumed: "In particular we await the results of new DNA analysis. We believe it is ethically questionable to interfere with the ongoing Irish Garda search for truth by producing a fictional narrative based on assumptions that might be biased - or whose impartiality remains unclear."
What none of us know except those who have seen the movie is whether Sheridan's jury finds Bailey not guilty.
Sheridan, like myself, has always held the view that there was never any hard evidence to convict Bailey, that the Garda investigation was flawed and that they never seriously looked at any other suspects.
Irish detectives also never got to interview Sophie's late husband Daniel face-to-face at the time, and did not receive much cooperation from the French police.
All they got was a written, signed statement from Daniel handed over to them by the French.
I, like Sheridan, spoke to Ian Bailey many times over the years and he always denied the murder. Truth be told, I have no idea if he did it or not.
He was a strange fish in many ways but that did not mean he was a killer.
I met a lot of bad bastards in my time who wouldn't bat an eyelid about taking another life and I honestly don't believe Bailey had it in him.
Sheridan has defended the film and made it clear he is not trying to upset Sophie's family.
He said: "I am not trying to upset them, I am not trying to do anything to them, but if there is a possibility that Ian Bailey didn't do it and he is pursued and hounded for 25 years , you can't cure one crime by committing another."
He also told of his issues with the French trial. "Marie Farrell was not invited to France to give her evidence. Was that a selective trial? Was that a limited information trial, a media trial, or a real trial?
"It is outrageous that Gardai didn't get to interview the husband and other people in France. It's clinically F...king insane. Ian Bailey is a convincing scapegoat for everyone."
The new Sophie film is inspired by the infamous 1957 movie, 12 Angry Men.
It won't solve the murder but it certainly will put it right back in the public eye and have everyone talking about it again.
The Gardai, meanwhile, are ploughing away with their investigation and only time will tell if a new suspect other than Ian Bailey emerges from the fallout.
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Irish Examiner
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