Shira Haas to Play Conductor Ethel Stark in Aisling Walsh’s “Ethel”

Films

Shira Haas to Play Conductor Ethel Stark in Aisling Walsh’s “Ethel”

Aisling Walsh is celebrating another Canadian trailblazer on the world stage. Her first big-screen feature since 2016’s “Maudie,” a biopic of Nova Scotia painter Maude Lewis led by Sally Hawkins, will tell the story of Ethel Stark, “the groundbreaking conductor who founded the first all-female orchestra in Montreal,” per Variety. Emmy-nominated “Unorthodox” actress Shira Haas has signed on to topline the pic, titled “Ethel.”

“Aside from breaking barriers in the music world, Stark has been credited for championing social change across gender, race, language, and class starting in the 1940s,” the source details. Celeste Parr (“Gurov and Anna”) penned the script.

Walsh most recently helmed “Elizabeth Is Missing,” a BAFTA-winning TV movie about an elderly woman with dementia who investigates the disappearance of her best friend.

Besides her breakout role in Netflix smash “Unorthodox,” Haas’ other credits include “Asia” and “Shtisel.”

“Ethel” will be distributed in Canada by Sphere Films, which also counts “Out Standing,” a portrait of Sandra Perron, Canada’s first female infantry officer, among its upcoming releases. Mélanie Charbonneau (“Fabuleuses”) is directing. Another woman-helmed title on its slate, Laetitia Colombani’s “The Braid,” “the story of three women from different parts of the world who have never met but are bound by something intimate and unique,” is currently shooting.