Discoveries from Ireland World Cinema

Yu Ming is bored of his life in China and decides to go to Ireland. He studies the language, but is dismayed to find that no one understands him when he gets there.

Bp Fallon has always lived at the heart of rock history. From his beginnings on Irish television, to his adventures in London's electric rock scene, Fallon was everywhere – working for the Beatles, whispering in the ears of legends like Led Zeppelin, T. Rex, and U2. He wasn't just a witness to rock history; he was the guy making it happen backstage.  Then, in a twist worthy of a rock 'n' roll fairytale, Bp grabs the mic in his 70s, recording raw, poetic tracks with none other than Jack White. After a lifetime in the shadows of giants, the eternal hipster finally takes centre stage – and owns it.

A man wakes from a coma speaking a fully formed but unrecognizable language baffling linguistic experts from around the globe.

The story of two sisters who grew up on the fractious Irish border. When one of them, who has been missing, finally returns home, the intense bond with her sister is re-ignited. Together they unearth their mother's past but uncovered secrets and resentments which have been buried deep, threaten to overwhelm them.

After experiencing a tragedy, Irish brothers Dara and Eoin move to rural France, where they become friends with young Bella, whose beauty and charm bewitches the emotionally unstable Dara.

A Chef from East L.A. received an invitation to a manor in Ireland to cook for a royal banquet that was planned by a Lord to convince his grandmother to sell their home.

As Newton devotes himself to the difficult and solitary path of challenging the existing view of the universe and proving his own theories on celestial movement and gravity, his young scribe Humphrey wavers between pursuing science or following his heart.

When a mysterious technological blackout plunges Ireland into anarchy and chaos, a group of failed, washed-up clowns are forced to traverse the country for one last shot at their dreams.

Jade is a young mother in the prime of her life when an acid attack leaves her severely burned. While her face has been reconstructed, her beauty is lost beneath the scars. Descending a self-destructive path with relationships crumbling, Jade must take drastic action to reclaim her life.

The story of an 11-year-old girl from a poor rural community who dreams of becoming a racing driver.

In the late Victorian era, Abe, a burdened Irish aspiring writer, assistant to Henry, a world-famous stage actor, finds the inspiration to create his sinister novel about a bloody character through the adventures he has while traveling the world with his boss' theatrical troupe.

Fatso is the proprietor of what may be the worst eaterie in the city, and is struggling to keep a sinking ship afloat. His compulsive gambling is getting the better of him and he has to contend with an endless succession of loan sharks and debt collectors. He employs hopelessly incompetent staff and generally manages to keep the entire community around him ticking over. However just as Fatso seems to be getting everything under control, he is faced with a dilemma that could destroy him for good.

Brendan is an earnest, introverted schoolteacher who, aside from his participation in the local choir, has only one passion in his life -- the movies. That is until he meets Trudy, a woman who is gregarious and adventurous beyond his imagination. His entire persona changes as he becomes enveloped in her carefree and sometimes dangerous world.

Frederick Butterfield has always been runner up to his twin brother Herman. When Herman, the older by a mere minute, becomes the world's oldest man, Frederick finally sees an opportunity to be first place.

In the underground world of diffing, a community finds solace in their passion, as they navigate personal struggles and challenges both on and off the road.

An upper class English family owns a villa in the Irish countryside. When the man of the house leaves to fight in WW2, his mother, wife, dying butler, maid and other staff's life becomes a bit hectic and some love affairs start to bloom.

Music teacher Noel is reunited briefly with his estranged mother during a local trad session. He must navigate his complicated past alongside his connection with new-found love, James.

Trojan Eddie sells stolen goods for John Power, aging godfather of a local network of Irish gypsies, known as "travelers." Having done time rather than inform on his partner in a failed burglary, Eddie now struggles to raise his two daughters alone. Power falls for and marries traveler girl Kathleen, but when she runs off with Power's nephew Dermot — and takes the $11,000 dowry with her — Eddie must track the couple down.

Fact-based story about Irish crime-investigating reporter Sinead Hamilton, who invaded the Irish underworld and attempted to expose the illegitimate activities she found. Hampered by the system, a police consort is ineffectual at aiding her despite trying to step outside of the normal bounds. Kevin McNally plays her husband, who hates her activities and the danger in which she places herself. Nonetheless, he grudgingly admires her persistence and encourages her investigation.

A decade after punk band Crust split, the band members lives have fallen apart. Drummer Bonehead has just been released from prison and sets about reforming the band for one last show.

A BBC film crew is interviewing a ‘typical Catholic family’ in the Divis Flats area of Belfast, when news comes in that a child, known to the family, has been hit by a stray plastic bullet fired by a British soldier – a version of events contested by the army. Back in London, editing the footage, the producer and researcher on the project wrestle with how to present the incident, and with their responsibility to the people in the film.

The film centres on local small-town GAA football "outside the bright lights of Croke Park", following a player who struggles to get back into the sport after an injury.

Karen, a recovering addict, has settled into a successful new life with her husband and young daughter. When Karl, an old boyfriend recently released from prison, turns up unexpectedly, Karen's buried past comes back to haunt her. Karen is forced to go on a road trip and confront a world she thought she'd escaped from if she is to protect her family and her future.

Colmán Sharkey - a fisherman, a father, a husband - takes in a stranger at the behest of a local priest. Patsy, a former soldier arrives just ahead of ‘the blight,’ a crop disease that caused the Great Plague, killing and displacing millions of Irishmen.

Isabella takes her granddaughter to Ireland to stay with a famous family friend for the holidays, only to discover that the best Christmases are simply spent with each other.

Man-boy farmer Donal discovers that his father has suddenly passed away. Now on his own, Donal attempts to lose his virginity by hiring a prostitute to help him get out of his rut. And so he meets Kim, an aging Kiwi escort. After engaging in a strictly sexual encounter, their relationship soon progresses into a lusty romance, then to a business enterprise between two partners. Through these exploits, Donal and Kim provide each other with a sense of love and belonging that neither experienced beforehand.

Victor Frankenstein's search for the secret of life leads to the creation of a monster that consumes his life and family.

A mentally unstable homeless man attempts to save his new and only friend from the world and drug dealers that make his life a living hell.

A teenage stranger is welcomed into a household in a devout Catholic village and gradually reveals his motives and what seem to be magical powers.

An adaptation of Samuel Beckett's absurdist drama. An ordinary woman lives her humdrum life half-buried in a pile of dirt; her husband is partially visible behind her. She goes through her daily routines, ever hopeful that this is going to be a happy day.

In 1982, in a small rural village, the stuntmen, down on their luck and having never made it into the big league, embark on a journey to the village of Taghmon to perform One Last Show.

Having lost his job when the factory closed, dad Daniel is now seemingly devoting himself to the church. When his wife, stay-at-home mum Zara, agrees to let a racy cabaret club pay to advertise on the side of their house a family showdown ensues.

Builder Harry Hambridge is a down-on-his-luck paddy living in London. In one day he loses his job, father and beloved pet hamster, Mouse. On returning home to bury his father, he finds a statement from his Grandfather, claiming that it was he who raised the flag over the GPO during the 1916 Rising, which now hangs upside-down in an army barracks in England. Too long used to the mockery of his life, he sets out with his motley crew to find that “fecking flag” and maybe his passion for life along the way.

An irreverent, modern, non-traditional re-telling of Ulysses, told rapidly by a succession of over 75 international actors. The film maintains the rhythm of the novel's stream of consciousness with intimate, minutely nuanced provocative performances.

Rupert, a ten year old boy, falls hopelessly in love for the first time. When it all goes terribly wrong, he wishes never to experience heartache again. Turning to a book of magic, he invokes a spell to shield him from emotion forever.

Have you ever had a best friend you couldn't stand? Myles has one - Austin - only he's too much of a slacker to do anything about it. In fact, each one of these layabouts is as useless as the other: a pair of thirty-somethings who laze around watching their lives flutter past. Fate, however, has plans to remedy their lack of motivation. Up to their necks in debt, they decide to help a dodgy entrepreneur, Gerard, to create a new landmark in Irish tourism: a Famine Theme Park.

An account of the life and work of Irish writer James Joyce (1882-1941) narrated by US actress Anjelica Huston.

Andy and Maggie, a young Irish couple, travel to England as the result of an unplanned pregnancy, where Maggie will face the biggest decision of her life.

An old explorer close to freezing in the Arctic re-lives the events that brought him there in the first place. He recalls his student days at Trinity College in Dublin when he studied under the enigmatic Professor Orit, the professor who was driven to madness by his obsessive pursuit of the unified theory. Convinced that the answer somehow lay in the relationship between the numbers two, three and five, Professor Orit's obsession started the journey which has led his former student to the top of the world.

A cash-strapped dad gets a job as the mascot of a chicken takeaway to make ends meet for his young family. They need to fly the nest of his overbearing mother, but can the plucky dad make it even to his first payday, dressed as a giant chicken?

Eileen has something important to discuss with her teenage son, Stephen. But on the day she decides to talk to him, Stephen has his own surprise in store for her.

Irish thriller starring Toby Stephens. Belfast of the near future finds the city ruled by two rival law-enforcing punishment squads. When Luke Bradley (Stephens)'s son is found murdered, suspicion falls upon the local preacher (Jim Norton). Taken to Sunset Heights, a druid's circle on a hill overlooking the city, the accused is summarily executed by the boy's father. However, when another child goes missing, it appears that they have killed the wrong man - or that the preacher has come back from the dead to wreak his revenge...

A modern Irish comedy western set in sleepy rural Sligo.

An autocratic Director (Harold Pinter) and his Assistant (Rebecca Pidgeon) put the final touches to the last scene of some kind of dramatic presentation, which consists entirely of a man (John Gielgud) standing still onstage.

Paris, France, February 2, 1922. The novel Ulysses, by Irish writer James Joyce (1882-1941), is published by US poet Sylvia Beach (1887-1962), owner of the small bookstore Shakespeare & Co. The book, whose writing consumed seven years of Joyce's life, years in which his family was in financial need, would have a profound and unprecedented impact on 20th century literature and culture.

Every year, the monsters from Halloween Town come to Earth to trick or treat for one glorious night of mischief before the gateway back to their world closes again. The Ghastly Ghoul is the story of Gary, a cute little monster who doesn’t believe he’s scary enough and so disguises himself as the Ghastly Ghoul. When he misses the gateway back home, he is trapped in the human world. He forms a friendship with a young girl, Beatrix, who is struggling with her own fears around the macabre holiday and together they help inspire a sense of self-belief in one another and try to find a way to get Gary home again on a Halloween night filled with magic and adventure.

Conamara, 1854 - Five years after the Great Famine. After many years abroad in the service of the British Army, a soldier returns home to find that his family are all dead. He visits a neighbour to establish what happened to them.

A teenager lies about his brother's death and struggles to face the consequences that unfold until his domineering father offers the possibility of forgiveness.

Cagliari in the 1940s is a big city for those who come from a small village. Annetta arrives in the days befpre Italy enters WWII and the Allies begin bombing the city. She's a 25-year old woman, always dressed in black, solitary and quiet, typical of the beauty of those from the most sparse areas of Sardegna.

Frankie is a car park attendant at the spectacular Giant’s Causeway in Co. Antrim. His friend Cathy and her husband Paul are in trouble. Nevertheless as Frankie always says, "Something will turn up!"

Bosco Hogan plays Joyce's alter-ego, Stephen Daedelus, growing up in Ireland in the early part of the 20th century, and at odds with the strictures of his Catholic home and family. The film charts his search for knowledge and understanding, during a decline in his family's circumstances, that leads him to revelations on the nature of art, beauty, and politics. However, his personal renaissance makes him feel unwelcome in his own country, and forces him to make a choice between exile as artist or staying and facing personal defeat.

A long standing family feud rocks a small town that comes to a head when the Patriarch of the ruling family decides to upend the status quo. Married to a much younger woman who calls him Daddy, she loves his power but is still in love with her first love, Doggy who is Daddy’s estranged son! Doggy is a criminal running various shady businesses with his dimwit brother, Martin when a mysterious newcomer Richie arrives in town to shake things up. Now watch the fireworks start in this Fargo-esque delight!

Hugo Chavez was a colourful, unpredictable folk hero who was beloved by his nation’s working class. He was elected president of Venezuela in 1998, and proved to be a tough, quixotic opponent to the power structure that wanted to depose him. When he was forcibly removed from office on 11 April 2002, two independent filmmakers were inside the presidential palace.

On a lonely country road, James Mangan hears a voice from his past and comes to realise he is damned.

A bedraggled community of misfits gather to mourn one of their own the only way they know how - an elaborately eccentric folk music funeral

An alcoholic is haunted by the events of a traumatic childhood. He now carries with him the item that he holds responsible - the note.

An 18-year-old man, living on a Dublin housing estate with his grandfather, is caught holding drugs for his friend's older brother and sentenced to 3 months in prison.

Having spent most of his life in religious instruction, Gabriel returns to his hometown as its new preacher. The town is full of drinkers and gamblers, including Jim and Caroline, his younger brother and sister-in-law. Gabriel believes he must save the townspeople, especially Jim and Caroline and their unborn child. In the battle to save their souls, some amazing revelations take place.

The land is filled with people in urns chattering at top speed, but only to themselves, not to one another. The focus goes to three people: a man, his mistress and his wife.

A sexy romantic drama in which, at the outset, the characters are leading their own lives in very different worlds, though each is beset by niggling discontentment. Michelle (Renée Weldon - IFTA Best Actress) is a fast-rising young Dublin lawyer with a smart apartment overlooking the Liffey, but dissatisfied in her relationship with a doctor (Declan Conlon). Conor (Aidan Gillen) is lonely and unattached, dutifully running the traditional Dublin pub owned by his hard drinking father (Eamon Morrissey). Late one night, Michelle bursts into the bar and orders a triple vodka. The consequences are explored and developed with an honesty and credibility as these disparate characters tentatively draw closer to each other. They become lovers. There is a strong sexual attraction. But there are complications along the way and the path to love can be rocky. Something's got to give. And what's the trouble with sex? You'll see...