Product Details

• Actors: Darragh Kelly, Colm Meaney, Mary Walsh, Andy Jones, Jessica Par
• Directors: John N. Smith
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Bfs Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: April 8, 2008
• Run Time: 360 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0012YN2A8
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,661 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

"...it seethes with raw personal drama." – The Globe and Mail

WINNER - Best Photography - Gemini Awards / WINNER - Best Actress - Gemini Awards / NOMINEE - Best Actor - Gemini Awards / NOMINEE - Best Supporting Actress - Gemini Awards / NOMINEE - Outstanding Achievement - Directors Guild of Canada Team Award

Directed by Gemini Award Winning and Oscar Nominated Director John N. Smith

An epic tale of love and survival

This award winning miniseries traces the difficult passage of young Mary Keane (Aoife McMahon) from servitude in Ireland to the squalor of rough-and-tumble Newfoundland in the early 1800s. Escaping attempted rape and abuse, Mary moves on with her infant daughter to find shelter at a remote fishing station run by Thomas Hutchings (Colm Meaney – Layer Cake, Kings). In a time and place where life and death are a hair’s breadth apart, Mary joins the community’s struggle for survival against sickness and starvation. All of the Cape’s people are fugitives of one kind or another, but by pulling together through hardships and tragedies, they forge a new life of hope – and even love.

approx. 6 hrs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Earthy, Honest and Fairly Accurate Drama, July 29, 2008

By 

P. M Simon "El Simon Asombroso" (New Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Random Passage (DVD)

Setting: Cape Random, Newfoundland, a tiny cod fishing station barely clinging to life.

Plot: In 1815, two unlikely families almost literally wash ashore. Mary Keane (Darragh Kelly), a young Irish woman with her illegitimate daughter comes as a stowaway. Mary has been tossed out of her home, watched her mother starve to death, and been raised in the Workhouse under the vilest conditions. Finally getting away as a maid, she is sexually confronted by her new master, then tossed into the streets. Her 'protector', a worthless wharf rat, impregnates her, gets her wrongly implicated in a murder, and then connives to strand her at Cape Random.

Meanwhile, the largish Andrews family comes ashore seeking not-to-be-had succor for a member, en route to a hoped-for new life after the paterfamilias (Andy Jones)lost his situation for pilferage.

These two families strain the meager resources of Station chief Thomas (Colm Meaney) and the one other family there.

This gritty, earthy Canadian-Irish miniseries realistically tackles issues of bondage, extermination of the indigenous Indians, starvation, disease, insanity, God, pregnancy, adultery and you name it as the tiny band moves from total subsistence to a bare semblance of civilization.

The series is well-acted, and well-directed. Not too much stock footage used despite an obviously modest budget. This series is well-worth a watch or two. If you like human drama, detailed 'real people' historic sagas, or the setting, this is recommended.

Comparison: Less odd and artsy than The Shipping News, less idealized and more older-times than The Bird Artist.

The DVD: Boxed set of two discs, each w. two 1.5 hr. parts. Decent audio and picture, few special features of note.

SPECIAL NOTE: This reviewer is 100% ethnic Newfie and NOT a young man. He remembers his own Grandmother Wagg, born within living memory of the times portrayed, telling many similar tales.

Nitpick: Episode Three has an encounter circa 1830 with a Beothuk native; If my memory serves, my own Newfie ancestors had, regrettably, killed them all well before this.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars will keep you enrapt, November 22, 2008

By 

Julie B. "heart in the highlands" (chicago, il usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Random Passage (DVD)

This was very well done. Very interesting historically. Well-written and well-acted with characters about whom you care. Colm Meaney caught my attention - from the old STNG days and I was interested in seeing it because of him. He was very good, but so were all the others around him,even though they are not known by American audiences. I think there were moments when my eyes were misty, and it had a satisfying ending. I believe I actually watched the whole thing in one sitting. Sounds cliche - but it was 'very compelling'.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous!, September 12, 2011

By 

Kathy Heizer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Random Passage (DVD)

Raced through it! Great scenery, acting and plot. If you are looking for a fast paced action flick, stay away. This movie lures you in and you don't want to leave.I highly recommend it.