Film alum Mounia Akl '17 has directed three episodes of Netflix’s show House of Guinness, created by the same team as Peaky Blinders. This new series, which premiered this September, tells the story of the heirs to the Guinness fortune after the death of patriarch Benjamin Guinness, told in the context of 19th century Dublin and the rise of the Fenian Brotherhood: an Irish Republican political group dedicated to the armed struggle against England's rule of Ireland. The show’s cast features predominantly Irish actors including Fionn O’Shea, who played Jamie in the television adaptation of Irish novelist Sally Rooney’s Normal People (2020) and British actor James Norton who plays the Guinness brewery foreman.
The show, which Jack Seale of The Guardian calls the “19th-century Dublin’s answer to Succession,” deals with the aftermath of Benjamin Guinness’ will reading, particularly Benjamin’s decision to leave the company to only two of his children: his first and second sons Arthur (Anthony Boyle) and Edward (Louis Patridge). Edward, who has returned from five years in London, is less invested in the future of the family company, while Arthur, already embroiled in the family business, has plans to take Guinness abroad to America.
The three episodes directed by Akl—the last three of the season—deal with the family’s attempt to extend their footprint beyond their origin of the familial enterprise. The show’s plot extends to New York where we see the political strife of Irish liberation surface across the pond.
Mounia Akl is a Lebanese actress, screenwriter, and director. Her first feature film Costa Brava Lebanon, premiered in 2021 at the Venice Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and BFI London Film Festival. Costa Brava won the 2021 Jury prize in Sevilla and Geneva and was Lebanon's submission to the Oscars.
