Murder at the Cottage

Two days before Christmas, French film producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier is murdered. Director Jim Sheridan begins his present day investigation in the Irish countryside exactly where the murder occurred in 1996.

The first journalist to arrive at the scene of Sophie’s murder, Irish reporter Ian Bailey became a key suspect early on in the investigation. Jim interviews the witness that first tipped police off to the crime.

Jim dives deeper into the circumstances surrounding the police’s investigation into Sophie’s murder. The case was riddled with false leads, changing witness statements, and despite 50 suspects, officials made zero arrests.

Years after the Irish police investigated Sophie’s murder, French police took over the cold case and added heat by basing the entire investigation around Ian Bailey, igniting cultural and judicial clashes.

24 years later while at home in West Cork, French authorities put Ian Bailey on trial in absentia for Sophie’s murder. Jim asks poignant questions about the trial’s unusual proceedings and its shocking outcome.