Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Martha Dunlea’s new short film, U home?x is a psychological drama exploring women’s safety in public spaces. It follows Nancy, a young professional in her 30′s, on her journey home from work on a winter’s evening.
As Nancy walks home, the true crime podcast she’s listening to transforms her ordinary commute into something far more daunting.
Through her experience, the film invites audiences to reflect on the heightened awareness and constant calculations that many women make when simply trying to get home safely. Martha outlines her approach to this story and the experiences for women behind it…
I WAS SITTING in an office in central London in January 2022. I was in a recruitment job that I really didn’t enjoy, but I had no acting work, so I needed the job to pay my bills.
I was at my desk scrolling through the news headlines when I saw one that shocked me: “Female jogger killed in attack in Co Offaly.” This was the horrific story of the death of Ashling Murphy.
I was so deeply affected by this story that I started asking people around me if they had seen the news about the young woman who had been murdered in Ireland. Most hadn’t, but they quickly found the story online and read it. We were all so shocked and shaken.
Most of the people in the office were between the ages of 21 and 30. This young woman felt like someone we could have known. Her murder sparked a conversation among us. A conversation about the small decisions we make every day to keep ourselves safe.
It quickly became clear that those decisions weren’t shared equally by everyone in the room. The office, I should add, had roughly an 80:20 male-female ratio.
One of my female colleagues said she would always text her parents as she was getting into an Uber to say, “Just in Uber, home in 20,” with her main motivation being that they knew her exact whereabouts. I joined in, saying I would never take a shortcut down an alley if I was alone, particularly if it was dark. I thought this was an obvious thing to say, but the young men around us were almost surprised.
“Really?” one guy said. “I never think twice about how I’m going to get home or about going down an alleyway.”
This was the first time it really hit home for me. Our realities are different. We have grown to adapt and alter our behaviour, to think ahead, and to plan in order to ensure our safety.
I hold my keys between my fingers when I’m walking home alone at night. I was taught this self-defence move in Transition Year, and I still do it almost daily, 20 years later. I pretend to be on the phone if I’m alone on the street and see one man or a group of men ahead of me. I stall on streets if I don’t want someone to know the direction I’m about to take.
All of these actions seem quite extreme when you take them out of context. But they feel very normal to me and, to be honest, they’re just part of my routine now.
When I started to think about these little “keep safe” tricks that I use, and particularly after hearing that the young men I worked with in the office never even considered these things, I decided I wanted to make a film about it. That was the beginning of the journey of U home?x.
Women love the true crime genre, and so many of my female friends indulge in true crime podcasts during their spare time, with some admitting that it’s part of their wind-down routine. One of the theories on why women love to engage with the telling of such horrific stories is that it helps them process their own fears of violence.
I’m not personally a fan of true crime, but the character in my film is. We follow Nancy, a 30-something professional living in the city. Like many of my friends who work in the corporate world, Thursday evening work drinks are the norm. On this particular night, Nancy has just left her colleagues outside the pub and embarks on the journey home alone.
As darkness settles over the city, she sinks into her bus seat and gets lost in her favourite podcast, I’m Addicted to Murder Mysteries. As the journey unfolds, the lines between Nancy’s world and the podcast begin to blur. What’s real and what isn’t? And is this week’s episode a little too close to home?
I’ve always been drawn to stories where the unspoken is loud and clear. I love films that trust their audience — where the underlying message lands not through speeches or exposition, but in the quiet moments that linger long after the credits roll. That’s the kind of storytelling I aspire to, and it’s something I wanted to bring to U Uhome?x.
My Irish-language drama, Éalú, was shortlisted for RTÉ Storyland last year and is currently in development with a very exciting female-led production company. It follows two sisters torn apart after one becomes the victim of a heinous crime and is sent away before anyone discovers what happened.
Her sister goes to extraordinary lengths to seek justice, refusing to let her story be forgotten. While Éalú explores the aftermath of violence and the enduring strength of sisterhood, at its heart it is a story about giving a voice to women whose experiences are too often silenced.
On reflection, I can see that Éalú and U Uhome?x are asking similar questions. Both examine how the threat of male violence shapes women’s lives, whether through its devastating consequences or through the small, everyday behaviours we adopt in an attempt to stay safe. I’m less interested in the violence itself than in what it leaves behind: the fear, the resilience and the quiet ways women continue to navigate the world despite it.
I do also write comedy, believe it or not, and I’m currently developing a pilot series about the trials and tribulations of everyday life in a mobile home park in East Cork.
Whether I’m writing drama or comedy, I’m always interested in stories that shine a light on the lives we often overlook, and in finding humanity in the everyday.
Martha Dunlea is an actor and Irish filmmaker. Her short film, U home?x, will have its world premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh this month. More in the programme for the Fleadh.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say