Irish Film Festival
Call it the luck of the Irish – Melbourne gets a new film festival, and big issues and big laughs are promised.
festival to hit Melbourne owes its existence, weirdly, to Irish rules football. Also known as Gaelic football, the game is similar to Aussie rules and is played by many expats from the Emerald Isle in Australia; Irish filmmaker Dr Enda Murray originally came out to make a documentary about the phenomenon, and ended up staying on to work in academia (he’s currently teaching film at the University of New South Wales). “I lived in London before Australia and was really impressed by their Irish Film Festival,” he explains. “I thought it would be a great addition to the cultural life of Sydney, and the Irish government have supported us really well, and this year we are going to Melbourne for the first time.”
The Irish industry, Murray says, is “going gangbusters” thanks to the country’s strong connections both to Europe and the US. “Ireland being just four hours from New York, there’s a lot of to-ing and fro-ing of actors and technicians. There were a total nine films last year with Irish connections nominated for Oscars. The future is looking pretty bright.” Murray talked us through the festival’s five offerings:
A Date for Mad Mary
“It’s a comedy about a woman out of prison trying to find a date for her best friend’s wedding. It was made in my home town, Drogheda – I can spot locations where I misspent my youth. It’s a gay story, which reflects the fact we’ve got marriage equality in Ireland, and for a country that was priestriddled, that’s a pretty interesting step.” Thu Apr 6, 8.45pm.
Mammal
“Australia’s Rachel Griffiths plays a woman in Dublin who has lost her son and she forms an unorthodox relationship with a homeless boy. This was an official entry in Sundance and it’s got Barry Keoghan, a well known face in Ireland, and Michael Mcelhatton, who is [Roose Bolton] from Game of
Thrones. It’s a beautifully crafted film.” Fri Apr 7, 6.30pm.
The Young Offenders
“Two guys go searching for a bale of cocaine that they have read has been washed up on a beach in West Cork. They are pursued by the police on stolen bicycles. It’s a laugh-out-loud slapstick comedy.” Fri Apr 7, 8.30pm.
Sanctuary
“The actors are people with learning disabilities, which sounds like it might be worthwhile-but-boring but it’s the opposite. Larry and Sophie are in love but society keeps putting barriers in their way, so they sneak off to a hotel to have a dirty weekend, and they have a pretty chaotic tour of Galway and its finer pubs.” Sat Apr 8, 4.30pm.
Bobby Sands: 66 Days
“This is a new documentary looking back at the 1981 Maze Prison hunger strike, a pivotal moment in the Northern Ireland conflict and the closest that we came to civil war. It looks at the legacy of Bobby Sands through his prison diaries.” Sat Apr 8, 8.30pm. kino Cinemas, 45 Collins St, Melbourne 3000. www.irishfilmfestival.com.au. $16-$30. Apr 6-8.
The Irish film industry is “going gangbusters”