EMMA Donoghue had a clear idea of what she didn't want in the film adaptation of her bestselling novel, Room.
A hit when it was published in 2010 – gifting book clubs, including Donoghue's own group, with lively discussions about the moving story of a mother and son who are held captive in a windowless room for years – she was insistent that the movie didn't veer into morbid sensationalism.
"There's nothing remotely original about telling the story of kidnapped white girl," she explains.
"Our culture is obsessed with the idea and I really wanted to do something that the other stories weren't doing."
Instead, she was adamant that Room explored the changing relationship between five-year-old Jack, who was born in the room, and his Ma, who had been kidnapped some years before.
Fortunately, director Lenny Abrahamson, who was so keen to adapt the story that he sent the writer a 10-page letter explaining how he would bring it to the cinema, agreed.
"I was so convinced when I read Room that I knew how to make it," recalls Abrahamson, whose previous credits include 2014's Frank, starring Michael Fassbender, Garage (2007) starring comedian Pat Shortt and What Richard Did (2012), based on a fictionalised account of a much-publicised fatal assault on a student in Dublin city centre.
"I was so captivated by the novel and what Emma had done with it," Dubliner Abrahamson (49) says.
And now, with three Golden Globe nominations, for best drama, actress (for Brie Larson who plays Ma) and screenplay for Donoghue, clearly their approach has paid off.
Room is told from the perspective of Jack, played by child actor Jacob Tremblay.
As well as showing the domestic lives of the captive mother and son inside the room, it avoids poring over the crimes committed against them.
"I wanted to focus very much on the amazing way Ma has turned her situation around by being a great mother," says Donoghue (46), who was born in Dublin but moved to Canada in the late 1990s.
"She defines herself as Jack's Ma, rather than as the one who is raped every night.
"I really wanted to reject the kidnapper's terms and not let him have control of the narrative. It was really important for me to let this be Ma and Jack's story."
The writer believes it would have been "facile" to finish the story with Ma and Jack's escape. Instead, she wanted to delve into the way they adjust after being reunited with the outside world.
"I think that would have implied that modern society is just fine, and the only problem is that you're locked up and you want to get out into the world," Donoghue explains.
"I couldn't resist the opportunity to have Jack see our world; I think that's far more interesting, and also for us to see what our world would do to Jack and Ma."
Both Abrahamson and Donoghue were intrigued by the reaction to the real story of Austrian woman Elisabeth Fritzl, who was imprisoned by her abusive father in a basement for 24 years.
In a similar way, Ma and Jack are greeted and cheered by strangers when they are eventually released and move to Ma's parents' house, and given presents and hounded for interviews.
"How did they not think, 'This is terrible?'" asks Abrahamson. "I mean they [people who have been held captive] just need to be left in peace more than anybody else."
As such, adapting the story prompted some deep discussion. "You do have to ask yourself the question as a film-maker, 'Well then, why am I making the story?'
"And I think it's clear from the film and the novel that there are very good and decent reasons for telling it," says Abrahamson.
"Ma agrees to do one TV interview and the interviewer represents that false concern, which is, in fact, desire to be titillated by the awfulness of somebody else's experience. I would never want to tell that story."
One of the breakout performances in the film comes from nine-year-old Tremblay. But how do you explain such a terrifying concept to a child?
"The great thing about children is that they understand that there are baddies," says Abrahamson, whose own young son and daughter played with Tremblay when they made occasional visits to the set.
"So many fairy stories have a theme of good people being held captive by bad people, so that part of the story was easy for him to understand."
Looking back, the experience of working with the Canadian child star has been unlike anything else Abrahamson has done in his career.
"It's definitely both the most rewarding and the most challenging task I've ever had as a director," he says.
"It's a monumental performance and he was seven when we started. It was intense but great fun as well, because he's such a lovely boy."
With three Golden Globe nominations and more than 30 wins so far at various international film ceremonies, there is sizeable hype surrounding Room.
"I try not to get caught up in speculation, but I have to say that in the case of this film, it's hugely helpful," admits Donoghue.
"It draws people's attention to the film quickly and also makes them feel vaguely positive things about it, especially with the dark, scary storyline.
"If people tell them that Brie Larson is astonishingly good, it induces them to go and see it. And for film with as dark a premise as Room, it's been massively helpful."
:: Room is released in cinemas on January 15.
