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Directors Highlights at Dublin International Film Festival

February 19, 2024
Marian Quinn Twig In this re-telling of Antigone set against Dublin’s gangland, young Twig dreams of escaping with her lover Eamon, but her brothers’ deadly feud over the future of their late father’s kingdom draws her back. After the death of her eldest brother, Eddie, she goes in search of her other brother, Paulie, defying authority in favour of God’s law. This reception of the Sophoclean tragedy is an angry but sensitive response to the recent rise of violence in the streets of the Irish capital. Epic in its scope and fearless in its honesty, Quinn’s anti-war film comes at a very appropriate time. Thu 22 Feb / The Lighthouse Cinema / 18:30 /  Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor Baltimore Rose Dugdale (Imogen Poots) was an English heiressturned-IRA sympathiser and this is the story of the event which came to define her life: the 1974-armed art theft of Russborough House. A studied sketch of the revolutionary, Molloy and Lawlor’s film is diffused with an emotionally absorbing soundtrack, creating constant drama, tension and unease. Fri 23 Feb / The Lighthouse Cinema / 20:45 / Dermot Malone King Frankie Frankie (Coonan) is a humble Dublin taxi driver, who runs his own tiny taxi firm. On the day of his father’s removal, he comes face to face with something that happened ten years ago, and the first thing that he must do is forgive himself. Malone’s debut film is about those who not only make promises but also keep them. Sat 24 Feb / The Lighthouse Cinema / 19:00 / Colin Hickey Perennial Light In coastal Ireland, the memory of his best friend’s sudden death haunts a young boy even as he ventures into adulthood. Troubled by his own vortex of dark thoughts and an unnatural obsession with death, he embarks on a quest for healing and redemption. Hickey’s film is a dialogue-free hybrid monochromatic piece of cinema, featuring hand-drawn ballpoint drawings from Paolo Chianta. Sun 25 Feb / Irish Film Institute / 13:30 / Alan Gilsenan Lord Mayor’s Gala: the Irish Question A provocative, poetic and cinematic meditation on the prospect of a united Ireland from acclaimed filmmaker Alan Gilsenan. With the likelihood of a border poll becoming an increasing possibility, do we really understand what that could mean for all those living on the island of Ireland? Or are we stumbling into some possible future as Britain once sleep-walked into Brexit? With unique contributions from the likes of Leo Varadker, Bill Clinton, Mary-Lou McDonald, Mike Nesbitt, Monica McWilliams, John Major, Susan McKay, Bertie Ahern, Fintan O’Toole, Gerry Adams, Linda Irvine and Peter Mandelson amongst many others, The Irish Question takes a fresh and sometimes surprising look at the dark trauma of the past and the unique possibilities of the future. Sun 25 Feb / The Lighthouse Cinema / 14:00 / Ross Killeen Don’t Forget to Remember There is an inherent understanding of the grieving process when a loved one is lost. But what if that person isn’t gone? What does grief mean then? In collaboration with the artist Asbestos, Killeen’s unconventional documentary explores the lived experience of Alzheimer’s whilst also honouring the ties of family. Considering the simultaneous fragility and fortitude of memory, it concludes that we can never truly lose our loved ones as long as we remember them. Mon 26 Feb / Irish Film Institute / 18:30 / Maurice O’Carroll Swing Bout This crime thriller, set backstage at a major boxing event, Ireland traces Toni Gale’s (Berkeley) tumultuous journey from the dressing room to the ring over the course of a night of deceit, betrayal, and life-altering decisions. Premiering at DIFF, O’Carroll’s film is a white-knuckle ride which tells its fisted story without ever revealing the boxing ring itself. Mon 26 Feb / The Lighthouse Cinema / 21:00 Keith Walsh Conor Walsh: Selected Piano Works Conor Walsh wrote his heart out in minimalist piano compositions. This is a musical vignette of the soundtrack of his life. It celebrates the work he left behind when he tragically died of a heart attack at 36, just when his music was beginning to flow out into the world. Tue 27 Feb / Irish Film Institute / 18:30 / Susan Thomson The Swimming Diaries Floating between conceptual documentary and experimental fiction, this film chronicles the 25,000 metres that Thomson swam during the period of her mother’s death. An adaptation of her book, it uses dance, music and memorial archives to translate text into movement.  Wed 28 Feb / Irish Film Institute / 18:30 / Kathleen Harris Birdsong Ornithologist Seán Ronayne is on a mission to record the call of every bird species in Ireland – that’s nearly 200 birds. At once inspiring and cautionary, his journey reveals the beauty and importance of sound, and what listening can tell us about the state of our natural world. Alan Friel Woken A pregnant Anna (Kellyman) wakes up on a remote island of which she has no memory and to faces she doesn’t recognise. Forced to re-learn everything about the world, she will need to do all that she can to protect herself and her unborn child. Friel’s debut feature is a sci-fi dystopian thriller beginning with the human race on the verge of extinction. Fri 1 Mar / The Lighthouse Cinema / 20:15 / Tadhg O’Sullivan The Swallow In a small house by the sea, a woman begins a letter to an unknown correspondent. Surrounded by the books, mementoes and clutter of a life lived in one place, her home exposed to the waves of a rising ocean, she writes about the history of lost art. Considering what has been lost, and wondering about her own desire to hold on, she sets out on a meditation on memory, and art’s aspiration to immortality. Fri 1 Mar / Irish Film Institute / 20:30 /  Pat Collins That They Might See the Rising Sun Capturing a year in the life of a rural, lakeside community in Ireland in the 1970’s, acclaimed Irish director Pat Collin’s new film THAT THEY MAY FACE THE RISING SUN is an adaptation of the final novel from John McGahern, one of Ireland’s greatest novelists. The film stars Barry Ward and Anna Bederke  in the lead roles. Lalor Roddy Sean McGinley  Ruth McCabe and first-time actor Phillip Dolan make up the rich cast of supporting characters.  Joe and Kate Ruttledge have returned from London to live and work among the small, close-knit community near to where Joe grew up. Now deeply embedded in life around the lake, the drama of a year in their lives and those of the memorable characters around them unfolds through the rituals of work, play and the passing seasons as this enclosed world becomes an everywhere.   Sat 2 Mar / The Lighthouse Cinema / 19:30 /

The Dublin International Film Festival runs Thu, Feb 22, 2024 – Sat, Mar 2, 2024 and features a host of Irish directors bringing their latest films to cinema screens across the capital.

Marian Quinn

Twig

In this re-telling of Antigone set against Dublin’s gangland, young Twig dreams of escaping with her lover Eamon, but her brothers’ deadly feud over the future of their late father’s kingdom draws her back. After the death of her eldest brother, Eddie, she goes in search of her other brother, Paulie, defying authority in favour of God’s law. This reception of the Sophoclean tragedy is an angry but sensitive response to the recent rise of violence in the streets of the Irish capital. Epic in its scope and fearless in its honesty, Quinn’s anti-war film comes at a very appropriate time.

Thu 22 Feb / The Lighthouse Cinema / 18:30 /

Tanya Doyle

Eat / Sleep / Cheer / Repeat

Between pastoral fields and council housing, in an industrial estate on the edge of Europe’s most westerly city, the best cheerleaders from across Ireland come together to form the national cheerleading team. This ensemble film centres on a gang of young misfits and oddballs who, through cheerleading, are finding their place in the world.

Fri 23 Feb / The Lighthouse Cinema / 18:30 /

Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor

Baltimore

Rose Dugdale (Imogen Poots) was an English heiressturned-IRA sympathiser and this is the story of the event which came to define her life: the 1974-armed art theft of Russborough House. A studied sketch of the revolutionary, Molloy and Lawlor’s film is diffused with an emotionally absorbing soundtrack, creating constant drama, tension and unease.

Fri 23 Feb / The Lighthouse Cinema / 20:45 /

Dermot Malone

King Frankie

Frankie (Coonan) is a humble Dublin taxi driver, who runs his own tiny taxi firm. On the day of his father’s removal, he comes face to face with something that happened ten years ago, and the first thing that he must do is forgive himself. Malone’s debut film is about those who not only make promises but also keep them.

Sat 24 Feb / The Lighthouse Cinema / 19:00 /

Colin Hickey

Perennial Light

In coastal Ireland, the memory of his best friend’s sudden death haunts a young boy even as he ventures into adulthood. Troubled by his own vortex of dark thoughts and an unnatural obsession with death, he embarks on a quest for healing and redemption. Hickey’s film is a dialogue-free hybrid monochromatic piece of cinema, featuring hand-drawn ballpoint drawings from Paolo Chianta.

Sun 25 Feb / Irish Film Institute / 13:30 /

Alan Gilsenan

Lord Mayor’s Gala: the Irish Question

A provocative, poetic and cinematic meditation on the prospect of a united Ireland from acclaimed filmmaker Alan Gilsenan. With the likelihood of a border poll becoming an increasing possibility, do we really understand what that could mean for all those living on the island of Ireland? Or are we stumbling into some possible future as Britain once sleep-walked into Brexit? With unique contributions from the likes of Leo Varadker, Bill Clinton, Mary-Lou McDonald, Mike Nesbitt, Monica McWilliams, John Major, Susan McKay, Bertie Ahern, Fintan O’Toole, Gerry Adams, Linda Irvine and Peter Mandelson amongst many others, The Irish Question takes a fresh and sometimes surprising look at the dark trauma of the past and the unique possibilities of the future.

Sun 25 Feb / The Lighthouse Cinema / 14:00 /

Ross Killeen

Don’t Forget to Remember

There is an inherent understanding of the grieving process when a loved one is lost. But what if that person isn’t gone? What does grief mean then? In collaboration with the artist Asbestos, Killeen’s unconventional documentary explores the lived experience of Alzheimer’s whilst also honouring the ties of family. Considering the simultaneous fragility and fortitude of memory, it concludes that we can never truly lose our loved ones as long as we remember them.

Mon 26 Feb / Irish Film Institute / 18:30 /

Maurice O’Carroll

Swing Bout

This crime thriller, set backstage at a major boxing event, Ireland traces Toni Gale’s tumultuous journey from the dressing room to the ring over the course of a night of deceit, betrayal, and life-altering decisions. Premiering at DIFF, O’Carroll’s film is a white-knuckle ride which tells its fisted story without ever revealing the boxing ring itself.

Mon 26 Feb / The Lighthouse Cinema / 21:00

Keith Walsh

Conor Walsh: Selected Piano Works

Conor Walsh wrote his heart out in minimalist piano compositions. This is a musical vignette of the soundtrack of his life. It celebrates the work he left behind when he tragically died of a heart attack at 36, just when his music was beginning to flow out into the world.

Tue 27 Feb / Irish Film Institute / 18:30 /

Susan Thomson

The Swimming Diaries

Floating between conceptual documentary and experimental fiction, this film chronicles the 25,000 metres that Thomson swam during the period of her mother’s death. An adaptation of her book, it uses dance, music and memorial archives to translate text into movement.

Wed 28 Feb / Irish Film Institute / 18:30 /

Kathleen Harris

Birdsong

Ornithologist Seán Ronayne is on a mission to record the call of every bird species in Ireland – that’s nearly 200 birds. At once inspiring and cautionary, his journey reveals the beauty and importance of sound, and what listening can tell us about the state of our natural world.

Thu 29 Feb / The Lighthouse Cinema / 20:30 /

Alan Friel

Woken

A pregnant Anna (Kellyman) wakes up on a remote island of which she has no memory and to faces she doesn’t recognise. Forced to re-learn everything about the world, she will need to do all that she can to protect herself and her unborn child. Friel’s debut feature is a sci-fi dystopian thriller beginning with the human race on the verge of extinction.

Fri 1 Mar / The Lighthouse Cinema / 20:15 /

Tadhg O’Sullivan

The Swallow

In a small house by the sea, a woman begins a letter to an unknown correspondent. Surrounded by the books, mementoes and clutter of a life lived in one place, her home exposed to the waves of a rising ocean, she writes about the history of lost art. Considering what has been lost, and wondering about her own desire to hold on, she sets out on a meditation on memory, and art’s aspiration to immortality.

Fri 1 Mar / Irish Film Institute / 20:30 /

Danny McCafferty

The Line

Joe Walsh lives a quiet, and somewhat predictable, rural life in the sleepy Irish town of Finbarrack which is upended with the death of his older brother Patrick. At the same time, Nina, a Ukrainian refugee, arrives in the village. They form an unlikely friendship during the course of which Joe begins to overcome his prejudices towards outsiders.

Mon 26 Feb / The Lighthouse Cinema / 18:30

Ciarán Ó Maonaigh

Brendan Gleeson’s Farewell To Hughes’s

To some it was an unassuming pub on a side street in Dublin’s city centre. To musicians, dancers, singers and listeners, Hughes’s was a mecca of traditional Irish music for more than 35 years. After it closes its doors for the final time, actor Brendan Gleeson returns to it to commemorate its invaluable legacy. In the midst of the current musical renaissance, this documentary celebrates the passionate and earnest story of an Irish cultural nucleus.

Fri 1 Mar / Irish Film Institute / 18:30 /

Pat Collins

That They Might See the Rising Sun

Capturing a year in the life of a rural, lakeside community in Ireland in the 1970’s, acclaimed Irish director Pat Collin’s new film is an adaptation of the final novel from John McGahern, one of Ireland’s greatest novelists. The film stars Barry Ward and Anna Bederke  in the lead roles. Lalor Roddy Sean McGinley  Ruth McCabe and first-time actor Phillip Dolan make up the rich cast of supporting characters.

Joe and Kate Ruttledge have returned from London to live and work among the small, close-knit community near to where Joe grew up. Now deeply embedded in life around the lake, the drama of a year in their lives and those of the memorable characters around them unfolds through the rituals of work, play and the passing seasons as this enclosed world becomes an everywhere.

Sat 2 Mar / The Lighthouse Cinema / 19:30 /

 

The full festival programme and booking www.diff.ie

 

Image from Twig 

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