Aubrey MaloneIf you’re in or around the City of Tribes between July 7 and 12 you should check out the Galway Film Fleadh. Now in its 27th year, Ireland’s leading film festival has a gala line-up this time.
The highlight, for me, has to be the Garret Daly/Martina McGlynn feature A Nightingale Falling (Town Hall, July 9). I saw this on RTÉ last year and was blown away by it. A visual poem, after watching it I found myself thinking what a shame it didn’t have a mainstream cinema release. At least there’s something like that here.
It’s a poignant War of Independence story about two Anglo-Irish women who hide a wounded British soldier in their house as the IRA and the Black and Tans exchange gunfire outside. Played out with measured tension, almost every frame is like a painting. It’s an austere film with a shocking finale and will tear you apart emotionally. A near-masterpiece.
Also at the Fleadh you can see Jack Reynor’s latest film Glassland, co-starring the ubiquitous Toni Collette. Reynor shot to fame in What Richard Did a few years ago and is now hot property in Hollywood. He’s being talked about as the new Colin Farrell.
Impressive
He also appeared recently in A Royal Night Out which I reviewed here recently. Some other films I covered for The Irish Catholic are also showing at the Fleadh, e.g. Noble (the biopic of Christina Noble), Patrick’s Day (an impressive if somewhat flawed mental illness film) and the touchingly romantic musical story Begin Again with Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley (no Irish connection here)
Suicide is a subject close to all our hearts, especially seeing as Ireland has such a heartbreakingly high incidence of it in the past few decades. It’s given a serious treatment in I Used to Live Here, showing on July 11.You might also be interested in Darkness on the Edge of Town (July 9), a hard-hitting Brendan Gleeson film not unlike his earlier Calvary, i.e. a revenge tragedy with artistic overtones.
Blood Fruit(July 10) is a documentary that deals with the brave stand taken by a group of Dunnes Stores workers in the late 1980s not to handle grapefruits that came from apartheid-riddled South Africa. They thought their dispute would be resolved after a few days but the story grew and grew. Eventually it became a worldwide sensation with the ripples still apparent today.
Shooting forSocrates (July 11) tells the story of a young boy in Belfast in 1985 who seeks an escape from the dismal quagmire of political unrest in the forthcoming World Cup. For him it’s an event that promises to unite Catholic and Protestant alike in a common ‘goal’.
Bittersweet story
Also showing on July 11 is Gold, an offbeat comedy about an estranged father who returns to Dublin after ten years to try and re-connect with his daughter and an ex-sweetheart.
Get Upand Go, meanwhile, is a bittersweet story about a group of twentysomething friends who wander around the bars and pubs of Dublin as they contemplate their relationships and employment status – and the impending birth of a child for one of them.
There are many other offerings too, an embarrassment of riches suggests Irish cinema is undergoing a Renaissance at the moment. Perhaps the most notable film on show is the Oscar-nominated animation feature Song of the Sea which combines elements of myth and folklore.
It might well be worth decamping to Galway for this bonanza of cinematic treats and tying it in with a summer holiday.