24 May 2021
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
New Documentary “Sophie: A Murder in West Cork” will launch on Netflix on 30 June 2021 – Contributors include Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s son Pierre-Louis Baudey.
Sophie: A Murder in West Cork is a documentary series examining one of Ireland’s most famous murders, that of French documentary producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier in Tooroor, near Schull, West Cork in 1996.
The three-part series is from Oscar winning producer of Searching for Sugarman and Man on Wire, Simon Chinn. It is produced by Chinn’s company, Lightbox, for Netflix.
The series was filmed in West Cork, Ireland and in France. Contributors include Sophie’s family, including her son Pierre-Louis Baudey, alongside residents from Schull and the local press.
Sophie: A Murder in West Cork is directed by BAFTA nominee John Dower (Bradley Wiggins: A Year in Yellow), executive produced by Simon Chinn, and Suzanne Lavery (The Naked Truth), and produced by Sarah Lambert (Captive).
Suzanne Lavery and Simon Chinn, Exec Producers said:
‘Sophie was much more than a victim of a murder. She was a mother, a daughter, a sister, a filmmaker and a writer. Whatever actually happened on that cold December night in 1996, the story is one of a collision of worlds, cultures and characters and it was that which drew us to it. But it was meeting and gaining the trust of Sophie’s family which really gave us our purpose. Justice has eluded them for a quarter of a century since Sophie’s death and their main aim in cooperating with us to make this series is to do justice to her memory. We hope we have achieved that, for them.’
A statement from Netflix described the documentary:
“Sophie’s brutal murder in one of the most beautiful and remote regions of Ireland shocked the country and triggered one of the biggest investigations it had ever seen – and over the next two and a half decades became a national obsession in both Ireland and France. With access both to the victim’s family and those involved in the story, the series unravels this extraordinary story from its beginnings and offers a unique window into the ongoing battle to find justice for Sophie.”
