Mass premiere: On the red carpet with Jason Isaacs and Ann Dowd at London Film Festival 2021

Mass is the writing and directing debut from Fran Kranz. It follows the meeting of two sets of parents, six years after they each lost a teenage son in a school shooting. To add a complication to matters, one of their sons was the killer. Unfolding almost entirely in one room, it is an intense but thought-provoking study of how one copes in the aftermath of the unthinkable, held taut by four fantastic performances from Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd and Reed Birney as the parents.

The Upcoming had the pleasure of meeting some of the cast on the red carpet at the BFI London Film Festival 2021.

Isaacs (The Death of Stalin, The OA) told us why he was initially drawn to being part of the project and what the experience of making it was like: “I’ve never seen anything like it. I thought it was insane to try and make a film about four people in a room. And then I read it and I was sobbing. And then I felt kind of elated and slightly like I’d been through some big cult experience and I felt the sun broke through the clouds. It’s one of the biggest films I’ve ever been in and it’s all set in a single room. It just takes the audience and took us on a gigantic emotional journey.”

Meanwhile, Dowd (of The Handmaid’s Tale fame) shared her insights on the importance of the film resisting being political on the subject of gun violence, and what it was like playing the mother of the shooter: “I knew that the profound sorrow and grief of the story was enough for me. And the beauty of the role. It was an extraordinary human being that Fran wrote. I wanted to know her and she, in turn, was remarkably generous to me.”

Sarah Bradbury
Videos: Weronika Kulesza

Mass does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews and interviews from our London Film Festival 2021 coverage here.

For further information about the festival visit the official BFI website here.

Watch the trailer for Mass here: