Northern Ireland projects and talent selected for the 2023 Galway Film Fleadh
Date Posted: June 28, 2023
With new Irish Cinema, award winning World Cinema, short films, panels, discussions, and masterclasses, the 35th edition of the Galway Film Fleadh will bring powerful, moving, funny and provocative storytelling from both emerging and renowned filmmakers to Galway from 11 to 16 July. Northern Ireland is well represented at the Fleadh with seven features and eight shorts selected.
Northern Ireland Screen’s latest New Talent Focus film, Lie of the Land will premiere at Galway. New Talent Focus aims to deliver one debut feature by a Northern Ireland resident creative team (writer, director and producer) each year. The tense drama is directed by John Carlin, written by Tara Hegerty and is produced by Chris Patterson and Margaret McGoldrick. As the Wards prepare to abandon their lives, escaping a dire financial situation, a last-minute change of heart leaves them fighting for survival. After her mother’s death, ageing farming couple Kath and Matthew decide to run from the crippling debt that is anchored around their smallholding, to find a new life in the sun. Their ticket to paradise comes via Shepherd, a mysterious stranger who promises safe passage away from all their problems for a fee. On the departure day, the couple change their minds. An angered Shepherd turns violent, and a deadly game of cat and mouse plays out around the farmhouse and its outbuildings.
Ballywalter, written by Stacey Gregg (Here Before) is a bitter-sweet comedy drama set in Ballywalter, Northern Ireland. Patrick Kielty is deeply touching in director Prasanna Puwanarajah’s debut feature.
Eileen (Seana Kerslake) is a caustic, unrepentant university drop-out whose dreams of a successful life in London have fallen by the wayside. Back at home with her mum, she makes ends meet by working as an unlicensed driver in her ex-boyfriend’s minicab. Shane (Patrick Kielty) has exiled himself in Ballywalter following the break-up of his marriage, but now he’s trying to get his life back on track by enrolling in a stand-up comedy course.
When Shane calls a taxi to get him to his classes, Eileen answers and a surprising connection is made. As the two spend time together shuttling back and forth, a beautiful friendship develops, leading them both to a moment of realisation. Shane reintegrates, and Eileen makes peace with herself and who she really is. Finally, she can stop running and just drive.
Ballywalter is a life-affirming story about the unexpected connections that can change the course of our lives.
Fine Point Films’ Let the Canary Sing chronicles Cyndi Lauper’s meteoric ascent to stardom and her profound impact that extends across her music, ever-evolving punk style, outspoken activism, and tireless advocacy. Emmy Award-nominated documentarian Alison Ellwood follows Lauper through exclusive never-before-seen footage, candid interviews, and untold stories, as she fearlessly blazes her own trail. Having achieved chart-topping success with such enduring hits as “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”, “Time After Time” and “True Colors”, Lauper continues to create and innovate, even winning a Tony Award for her work on the Broadway sensation, “Kinky Boots.” The film also shines a light on Lauper’s activism, capturing her unrelenting support for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. Featuring interviews with some of Lauper’s closest friends and family members, including Boy George, Billy Porter, and Patti LaBelle, Let the Canary Sing is a celebration of one of music’s most groundbreaking artists.
A retrospective screening of the late Tom Collins’ feature Kings has also been programmed. Kings received funding from Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund and became Ireland’s Foreign Film Oscar nomination.
Margo Harkin’s feature documentary Stolen reveals how women who had the misfortune to fall pregnant ‘out of wedlock’ were treated in an Ireland that was heavily influenced by the Catholic Church. Over 80,000 unmarried mothers were incarcerated in mother and baby institutions run by nuns from 1922 to 1998. Most were cruelly separated from their babies after birth. Many of the children were adopted within Ireland and abroad – rendered untraceable and unaware of their birth story. Others were fostered as cheap farm labour from the age of six, often in circumstances abysmally devoid of care and love. 9,000 infants died in these institutions from 1922 to 1998, a rate that, on occasion, was five times the national average infant mortality rate. Survivors expose the shocking details of their treatment in a scandal that sparked a government inquiry into the fate of unmarried women who fell pregnant in 20th-century Ireland.
In the Shadow of Beirut, produced by Brendan Byrne, is a powerful film that captures the stark reality of life in Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila neighbourhoods. The film follows four families over 4 years and depicts the harsh rituals of their daily lives as they struggle for survival in a city and country on the brink of financial collapse. Through extraordinary access, the filmmakers open a window into a largely unseen world to unfold a collection of utterly compelling human narratives filled with resilience and hope. In quiet, intimate moments, the vulnerability of people living in the shadows of this once-great city fills the screen.
Jam Media’s Greyhound of a Girl will have its Irish premiere at the Fleadh. This family animation follows Mary who is 11 years old and has an insuppressible passion for cooking: she dreams of becoming a great chef. Her grandmother Emer, with whom she has a very special relationship, encourages her to make this dream come true. But every path has its pesky obstacles, and facing them turns into quite an adventure. Mary thus begins a journey across the barriers of time, in which four generations of women come together and get to know each other truly and deeply. Enzo d’Alò’s animated adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s novel is a delicate coming-of-age story, sprinkled with irony. With a cast that includes, Brendan Gleeson, Sharon Horgan, Rosaleen Linehan and Charlene McKenna.
Two Northern Ireland Screen-backed animated short films; Animus and Stan by Me have been selected for the Fleadh. Both shorts came through our Creative Animation scheme, a scheme designed to develop junior creators/animators through the production of animated short films. The scheme provides junior level creators/animators with the opportunity to develop their own ideas with support from established animation companies.
The latest short from Oscar-winning duo Ross White and Tom Berkeley, The Golden West, will have its world premiere at the Fleadh. Other fiction shorts from Northern Ireland include Caleb J. Roberts Malcolm, Colm Herron’s I Know You, Emily Foran’s Bad Vibes and Sam Nutt and Dan Pringle’s Waste. Seán Mullan and Michael Barwise’s HYFIN has been selected in the new shorts documentary programme.
