Cannes newbie Lola Petticrew will get their moment in the sun when British filmmaker Clio Barnard’s powerfully resonant I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning has its premiere at the 58th Directors’ Fortnight. Adapted by Enda Walsh from Keiran Goddard’s stunning 2024 novel about social and class inequality, the film charts the lives of five 30-year-old childhood friends. “They’re trying to cope with adulthood and the pressures of the world,” says Petticrew, “and deal with the cards that they’ve been dealt in being where they’re from — and how the roads they’ve taken have created a bit of conflict between them. They’re the age that we are, and this was all the music we remember, but everything feels so present.” 

As with Goddard’s tome, Barnard’s film is set in Birmingham, in the British Midlands. Petticrew, playing Shiv, joined cast mates Anthony Boyle, Joe Cole, Daryl McCormack and Jay Lycurgo on location in the region, where, they said, “people of that community are in the film. A lot of them are doing stuff like playing builders and the people that work in the bars, so we got to build a rapport with them. They really welcomed this weird little film crew that landed smack-bang in the middle of their town.”

Petticrew and Boyle play the parents of two young girls. Shiv looks after their kids while also caring for her bedridden mother, while Boyle’s character, Patrick, rides his bike delivering fast food. They didn’t require a chemistry test because, in real-life, the pair have known each other since they were both 11. “It’s so crazy, because Anto and me are from the same area of West Belfast. While it’s not in Birmingham, or even England, we’re from areas that aren’t too dissimilar.”

Petticrew and Boyle previously played siblings in the BBC drama Come Home, then they portrayed Irish Republican paramilitary operatives Dolours Price and Brendan Hughes in the sublime FX drama Say Nothing. “And now we’re parents,” laughs the actor, speaking from Rome’s Cinecittà Studios where they and Euphoria’s Toby Wallace are shooting Season 1 of Assassin’s Creed for Netflix..

Despite the seriousness of the themes addressed in Barnard’s film, the cast had some laughs when the day’s filming was done. “Oh, there was major craic that we had,” they say, using an Irish term for having some fun. “You couldn’t be around those boys and around those people and not have major craic. They are honestly four of the funniest people I’ve ever met. So, there were a lot of laughs.” —Baz Bamigboye