Cillian Murphy attends Small Things Like These premiere

"I hope the film is gently provocative," Oscar award winning Cillian Murphy told RTÉ as he appeared on the red carpet in Dublin for the premiere of his new movie Small Things Like These.

Nine months after the movie was first shown at the Berlin International Film festival - where it garnered great acclaim - the cast and producing team said they were excited to finally bring it home.

The story, set in Ireland, is based on Claire Keegan’s 2021 Booker-shortlisted story and it is the first on-screen role for Murphy since winning the Oscar for Best actor earlier this year for his role in Oppenheimer.

Cillian Murphy said: "The book haunted me after I read it. It is a masterpiece so I'm so glad we were able to gather such talent around us to help tell this story."

The movie tells the story of a Wexford man, coal merchant Bill Furlong, who uncovers a terrible scene at the local Magdalene laundry.

It has been hailed by critics, praised for the way it confronts dark part of the Irish story, and is winning awards, including a win for Emily Watson for the Best Supporting Performance at Berlin for her performance as Sister Mary.

This has been a passion project for Cillian Murphy as he is producing it along with with colleague Alan Moloney, at Big Things productions.

They have also brought Matt Damon and Ben Affleck on board to produce the film.

With a script adapted from Claire Keegan’s story by Cillian Murphy's good friend Enda Walsh, this is a project that has drawn some film industry heavy hitters.

Eileen Walsh, who plays Cillian Murphy's wife, was also on the red carpet and she said: "It was first shown nine months ago in Berlin so we've been waiting to bring it here - it means so much to us to finally bring it home and to be here in Dublin."

When asked about the challenging themes raised in the movie, and how it confronts the dark history of the story and she added: "The book had started this discussion about these issues and we really hope the film will continue that."

Talking about working with Cillian Murphy and Enda Walsh again she said: "It was a lovely reunion working on this with them - it felt good to work on a story like this together."

Co-producer Alan Moloney told RTÉ that he hopes the film will provoke debate and discussion and that for people who have lived experience of this that it "will be cathartic and it will make it ok to talk about it more".

He added: "It's a Christmas film so it's the right time for it to be on here in Ireland."

The audience at the LightHouse premiere included Cillian Murphy, Eileen Walsh, Zara Devlin, The Edge, Adam Clayton and the cast of the movie.

Small Things Like These opens in cinemas nationwide from Friday 1st Nov.