Director Biography - Maxine Peake

Maxine has appeared in TV shows such as Silk, Shameless, Criminal Justice and See No Evil. Recent Film includes Funny Cow and Fanny Lye Delivered in the title roles. Theatre highlights include Hamlet at the Royal Exchange, playing the prince of Denmark themselves. Maxine has written extensively for stage and Radio. All her plays have focused on women’s stories. She has directed the short film Time Away and is now working on the feature version. She has also directed music videos for Cherry Ghost and Keeley Forsyth

Director Statement

As both an actress and director, I have always been frustrated with the female stories that are chosen to be told, especially working-class female stories. Short shrift is still dished out when tackling these women, their intelligence, their passions, needs and ultimately their place in society.

The prejudices and presumptions that at best misrepresent at worst silence. I want to bring complicated, complex women to the screen. Women that I am surrounded by. Hayley’s script cut straight to that desire. Here is a woman in turmoil. This pain and conflict stemming from the diagnosis of her unborn child. The barriers emotional and clinical that she has to overcome when making her decision to terminate the fetus or not. Hayley’s script focuses on the destructive and divisive silencing of women around matters that involve their health and wellbeing. The lack of help, support and understanding, of willingness to understand and engage. I want to explore and highlight the crimpling and debilitating effect of grief. Grief of losing an unborn child and the loneliness of that grief. I want to look how that grief manifests physically as well as mentally.

I want the silencing of Annie to manifest itself as if in a horror. Something symbolic, unsettling and otherworldly. The setting of Incompatible is the Haworth Moors known for its most famous residents The Bronte Sisters. Hayley has drawn parallels with these extraordinary women. The life they were only able to express through their imagination and ultimately through their writing. I want us to feel their presence haunting not only Annie but the rugged landscape, which I believe is in all good filmmaking, will be another character.

Our native environment has such an indelible effect on our psyche and here is landscape that can be bleak, brutal and stunningly beautiful in the same breath. The deep connection women have with nature, it mirrors our anger and fear but also has a remarkable ability to soothe and calm. The timelessness of connection. I want this to be a central theme. I also want our Haworth and the surrounding area to represent the diversity within the North of England which, again, too often gets ignored and overlooked. This is a story not without hope, It is the story of the birth of hope in the most desperate of situations. It is a love letter to women everywhere who suffer in silence. The true warriors