How Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds explore faith, marriage and regret in ‘Midwinter Break’

Faith plays a key role in “Midwinter Break,” a drama starring Lesley Manville and Ciaran Hinds as a longtime married couple whose winter trip to Amsterdam becomes a reckoning with belief, regret and unfinished promises.

Based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Bernard MacLaverty, the film follows Stella and Gerry, retired partners whose familiar routines, shared jokes and affection mask deeper emotional divides. Stella arrives carrying a private purpose tied to a vow she made decades earlier after surviving a traumatic shooting while pregnant: a promise to devote her life more fully to God if her child lived.

Her faith, expressed largely through prayer and memories, becomes the center of the film, directed by Polly Findlay and releasing Feb. 20. 

“I understood on an emotional level what Stella was thinking,” Manville told The Christian Post. “And I could imagine that if something like that had happened to me, it would take your thinking to a higher place.”

Because Stella has faith, the British actress explained, that is where her character’s mind naturally goes.

“I’ve had a child, so I understand pregnancy and having a baby,” she said. “I can imagine going through what she went through being very complex and making you question all sorts of things.”

“You just play the scene and use your instincts,” the “Sherwood” actress added, crediting Findlay with helping calibrate the performance. “We shared our feelings about whether the level felt right.”

The result is a character whose faith never becomes performative: Stella prays and carries a promise made in desperation and gratitude, unsure how to reconcile it with the life she has built.

Across from her is Gerry, played by Hinds, an Irish actor best known for “Belfast” and “Game of Thrones.” A former architect, he is funny, guarded and increasingly unsettled, a man shaped by old expectations and modern disillusionment.

Hinds told CP he had long admired MacLaverty’s writing and that the two men grew up close to each other, attending the same school and university at different times.

“I picked up the book around 2018 or 2019, before there was any talk of a film,” Hinds said. “When I read the book, there was something so quiet but so profound about humanity and relationships. There’s trauma in it, but there’s no constant drama. It’s very personal and very delicate, and that’s what drew me to it.”

He also recognized Gerry immediately.

“I come from the same neck of the woods,” Hinds said. “I had an instinct for those unreconstructed men of a certain age who expected dinner to be ready and their partner to support them in everything. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t love Stella with every bit of himself, but those expectations were ingrained. Thankfully, that’s changed now. That’s why he feels childish at times. There’s a part of him that still needs looking after.”

MacLaverty, raised in a devout Catholic home, has long explored themes of faith, marriage and moral reckoning in his work. “Midwinter Break,” Hinds emphasized, adds a new layer by placing those tensions late in life.

“At this stage, it becomes very interesting,” Hinds said. “On one hand, you have a woman who made a real promise and a vow to God, and she’s practiced her faith. Gerry, at one point, would have been Catholic, too, but he’s lapsed.”

“There’s a cynicism about what’s happened in life, maybe about his career,” Hinds said. “I’d say he’s more of a humanist now, but not a happy humanist.”

In the film, Gerry respects Stella’s beliefs until they begin to challenge his understanding of reality. According to Hinds, the most compelling aspect of their story is this tension that has existed for years.

“He respects her religion until it overwhelms him,” Hinds said. “Then he looks at it from a more practical point of view and says, ‘No, that’s not really what happened. You’re calling on something beyond scientific means.’ And that becomes part of their relationship.”

“That’s what’s brilliant about it,” he said. “This has been going on for a long time, and yet they’re still strongly connected. It’s about faith and yet, in another way, it’s just about humanity. It’s complex. … You can look at these two people and think, this is a good marriage. They laugh together. They’re still intimate. There’s a lot going for it.”

Manville told CP that viewers at a recent screening in New York questioned Stella’s frustration precisely because the relationship still contains tenderness and joy despite its obvious cracks. But the 69-year-old actress said she understands Stella’s internal struggles.

“A lot of the audience was questioning Stella’s dilemma,” she said. “Because there is a lot going for this relationship. I really understand Stella’s feeling that she has to get away from this because it’s stuck in a rut. She’s kind, but she’s also saying she needs to devote her life to God because that’s the vow she made, and she’s never lived up to that promise.”

She added with a laugh that perhaps “they just need a bit of couples therapy.”

The title itself reflects that ambiguity: A “midwinter break” suggests both rest and rupture, Hinds said, adding: “It’s a brilliant title.” 

The film’s ending remains open, refusing easy conclusions about faith, love or sacrifice, but Hind said he hopes viewers walk away with perseverance and an optimism that marriages are worth fighting for.

“I hope people leave feeling that it’s always worth fighting for, even through the difficult times and differences of opinion,” he said. “There was something pure and wonderful at the beginning of their connection.”

“It’s open-ended,” he said about the uncertainty ahead for Stella and Gerry. “She may come back and try again, but there’s no guarantee.”

“If it’s there between two people who are close,” Hinds added, “it’s worth the fight.”

“Midwinter Break” is rated PG-13 for thematic material involving alcoholism, some strong language and bloody images.