Homecoming for Ciarán is a far from joyous experience

Adebut of real promise from New York-based Irishman Donal Foreman, Out Of Here (15A)

HHHH bears all the hallmarks of an established writer-director who has the patience to allow his story to unfold at an unhurried pace rather falling into the usual first timer’s trap of rushing events.

Foreman keeps the details on Ciarán (Fionn Walton, What

Richard Did) close to his chest: the reasons for the twentysomething’s emotional funk since his return home to Dublin – where he was, how long he’d been there, why he came back, and why he is unable/unwilling to reconnect with his friends – is information that’s dribbled out over the course of Out Of Here’s eighty minutes.

There’s an ex girlfriend in Jess (Annabell Rickerby), with whom he tries to reignite a lost passion. But once he finally unleashes the moment he’s finally encouraged to vent, Walton is less a former art student stumbling about the capital, more Samuel Beckett’s Lucky in Waiting For Godot: ‘I’m sick of walking around this place and being reminded of s**t that’s over!’

This is some deft writing from Foreman. Ciarán could have easily been one of those more-chilled-than-thou world travellers who turn up their noses at everything once they get home.

It takes even more skill not to turn Out Of Here into a post-recession diatribe. What Foreman wants to explore is what it feels like to be young, educated and aimless in Ireland today. There’s no pointed finger, no blame – this is just how it is. And Foreman doesn’t overwrite, letting the rain, the overcast sky, cold kitchen, and the bleak Dollymount Strand juxtapose the unseen warmer climes Ciarán’s returned from.

He also stands back to allow his cast to adlib. This writer-director has an original voice. Front and centre throughout, Walton is in step with Foreman all the way, content in the knowledge that downplaying it will pay off more when he finally lets go later.

Surprise winner of the Golden Lion at Venice in 2013, documentary

Sacro GRA (15) looks at the

HHHH lives of various characters who live near the great ring road that circles Rome, the Grande Raccordo Anulare. Director Gianfranco Rosi hones i n on five characters, including an eel fisherman, a paramedic and an aristocrat with a kitsch castle.

I wonder if a movie about, say, the M50 would be quite so richly revealing.

AiMLeSS: Ciarán, below, finds it hard to reconnect with his old friends, left, when he returns from his year abroad