Discoveries from Ireland World Cinema

On their final night before departing Justin and Nicole gather their closet family together for one last meal.

Americans want to take over the Irish creamery Angela Mooney's husband built up. Everybody in town is delighted, with the exception of Mrs Mooney, who has her own reasons for being opposed to the sale of the business.

James and his dad Michael use Irish as a secret language to discuss their secret spy business. They must never let James' mum know about their covert missions. But soon everything will be thrown into the open and life will never be the same again...

Mr. McArevey is a visionary headmaster at a Catholic primary school in one of the toughest neighborhoods of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He loves Elvis and teaches his students to connect with their feelings, while taking on the legacies of the “The Troubles.” In this exceptional portrait of a community still healing from trauma, we follow this educator extraordinaire as he uses Ancient Greek wisdom as an antidote for pessimism, violence, and historical despair.

Set over Halloween weekend of 1987, My Brothers is the story of three young brothers' epic quest to replace their dying father's watch. Noel, 17, serious, weighed down by responsibility; Paudie: 11, cocky, not so bright and dreams of playing in goals for Liverpool and Scwally: 7, naive and obsessed with Star Wars (despite never actually having seen the films). Using a battered bread van, the brothers embark on a journey across the wild Irish landscape on the Halloween weekend, grinding gears and screaming at each other to get to an arcade machine in Ballybunion. Along the way they are detoured by escalating brotherly battles in an off-beat and moving journey that can only lead them home.

Based in Jacksonville, Oregon in the year 1992, life changes for the worst. People start going crazy, violent, cannibalistic, tearing the world apart. We follow Erin, a quiet young teenager through a post-apocalyptic world. Facing struggles not even your worst enemy should face. Mystery and menace have taken control of their lives. From getting ripped apart, broken down, hurt and scared. Erin and Jacob always find their way back to each other.

Kathleen is 18 and alone. The system has no place for her now. What does the future hold when the past is all you've got? This visually arresting and emotionally-taut tale depicts the ongoing problems surrounding young adults who age out of care and their struggle to 'fit in'.

When Matthew explores the 'spiral' in his grandmother's garden (a strange structure built by his late grandfather) he discovers an entrance into the magical world of 'the Shadows' where he meets his new Shadow friends, Yorrick and Alice, and begins his great adventure.

Hannah returns home to face her dysfunctional and emotionally-repressed family after her attempted suicide. Her journey towards healing intertwines with the humorous clashes and unique bonds within the family.

Taiwo hopes to make a life for herself and her twin sister in the faraway city of Dublin. Fearing what may await her on her arrival, Taiwo makes a desperate bid for freedom from her Dublin smugglers. However she is hunted down by a petty thief and conman, Keely, who on kidnapping her, decides to tell nobody of his catch and brings the girl home.

Dance culture brings communities together in 1990s Belfast but there will be consequences.

A selection of Dermot Morgan's family, friends, colleagues and admirers, including Pat Shortt, Oliver Callan and Pauline Mc Lynn, look back on the life of the comedian, writer, satirist and actor whose savage wit belied a caring nature and reflect on his place in the annals of comedy greats.

A teen couple who have special needs are harassed by a gang. Their response to the attack changes the day for everyone.

A tragic tale of a shipwrecked and injured fisherman as he searches for signs of life on the island where he was stranded leading to a dark secret.

Bringing together one of the world’s great classic plays with one of Ireland’s greatest writers, Druid present Tom Murphy’s version of Chekhov’s masterpiece The Cherry Orchard at Black Box Theatre, Galway and Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin. A play about land, legacy, and the struggle between tradition and change, this is the first major production of Tom Murphy’s work since his death in 2018.

In this series of shorts, the phrase "Gay Agenda" is reclaimed from the religious right and transformed into a celebration of gay culture. Sit back and enjoy "Dominant Chord," "Petit Ami," "Skin to Skin," and "Follow Me."

A silent love story about an inventor who loses and then wins his love from a villainous cad.

The story of Rachel, an innocent everyday lady, who after suffering harrowing and humiliating experiences at the hands of different men, is lead by her close friend, Kate, and Kate's sister, Andrea, to embark on a campaign of torturing and murdering men. Eventually Rachel transforms into a brutal sadistic serial killer.

Explores humanity’s profound relationship with water and reveal how human agency can help rebalance the planet’s water systems

GAZA brings us into a unique place beyond the reach of television news reports to reveal a world rich with eloquent and resilient characters, offering us a cinematic and enriching portrait of a people attempting to lead meaningful lives against the rubble of perennial conflict. Throughout its entire history the Gaza Strip has been witness to conflict and upheaval. From ancient times this tiny coastal territory, located at a crossroads between continents, has been a pawn whose fate rested in the hands of powerful neighbours.

Follows the story of a luckless actor named Barry who has recently split from his girlfriend. He is seen wallowing at home in his pyjamas, where he becomes fixated on a children's television presenter who he sees on daytime television. The two accidentally collide at an awards ceremony and Barry sets out to impress the presenter. However, he inadvertently lies about his profession, ignoring his actorial status for a career in psychiatry.

A tangled web of deceit pitches three lovers together with the added proposition of a baby.

In 1935 two German geologists, Henno Martin and Hermann Korn, leave Nazi Germany for South-West Africa (Namibia) to conduct field research. At the outbreak of the Second World War, many male Germans living in South-West Africa are interned in local camps. As pacifists the two German scientists refuse to be arrested and flee into the Namib Desert. They live for over two years in the vastness of the desert like ancient bushmen under indescribable circumstances, facing the challenge to survive and, at the same time, the threat to be detected. On the radio they follow the war events in Europe. Their adventure comes to an end when Hermann Korn starts suffering seriously from malnutrition.

In the follow-up to Graham Reid’s trilogy of ‘Billy’ plays, Billy's sister Lorna Martin is left to care for their Uncle Andy. Lorna feels trapped, but Andy wishes to give her the freedom she desires.

On an Orkney isle, siblings Isla and Sandy hunt birds and talk to mythical beings while fighting off outsiders. Their lives change when Daniel, an awkward official, arrives to relocate them.

Two Dubs, Sean and Ger, get wind of the proverbial pot of gold and what should be a straight-forward job becomes a fiasco. But, there's an old Irish saying - "Filleann an feall ar an bhfeallaire - What goes around comes around".

Doug, an aspiring country singer, has spent his life as a loser in a non-descript small town with nobody believing in his heartbreaking voice and talent as a musician. His wife has left him and only his best friend believes in him. But he has one last chance to make it.

Over an extraordinary acting career spanning a decade, Stephen Rea has shown himself to be a versatile, prolific and mercurial talent. With unprecedented access to an internationally renowned creative figure, this intimate documentary explores the development of his radical outlook through the actor’s life and work.

A young woman finds herself stuck with a clump in her head. Unsure what to do about it, she roams the streets of Dublin in an attempt to rid herself of the monotonous thuds and escape her roommate's acting practise. Safe travels you old clump.

An ageing Elvis impersonator finally faces up to his demons as he travels through the Irish midlands with his long-lost brother, who has recently quit his life in a monastery.

In 2008, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova captivated audiences and earned two Academy Awards for their musical collaboration in the film Once. As their fictional romance blurred with reality, they fell in love, recorded an album, and embarked on a world tour.

Three Roman teenagers try to make their mark on the world: Brenda is pregnant; Ale has just turned 19 and is about to become a father; Kevin fills the city with his name. Always connected, they buzz between the coastal countryside and the Eternal City, trying to resist each in his own way the inexorable advance of time and heat.

All Tina wants is a friend she can perform her dance routines with. And magically one day, a friend appears – an exact double of Tina!

In a rural Irish village, a strange calf is born. And it won’t stop screaming.

Gray Matters explores the long, fascinating life and complicated career of architect and designer Eileen Gray, whose uncompromising vision defined and defied the practice of modernism in decoration, design and architecture. Making a reputation with her traditional lacquer work in the first decade of the 20th century, she became a critically acclaimed and sought after designer and decorator in the next before reinventing herself as an architect, a field in which she laboured largely in obscurity. Apart from the accolades that greeted her first building –persistently and perversely credited to her mentor–her pioneering work was done quietly, privately and to her own specifications. But she lived long enough (98) to be re-discovered and acclaimed. Today, with her work commanding extraordinary prices and attention, her legacy, like its creator, remains elusive, contested and compelling.

13 year-old David and nine year-old Danni live in a children's home, where despite the best of adult intentions, there is conflict and sudden tragedy. When the pair escape the home, they embark upon a daring adventure in search of the beach.

Ireland, June 1944. The crucial decision about the right time to start Operation Overlord on D-Day comes to depend on the readings taken by Maureen Flavin, a young girl who works at a post office, used as a weather station, in Blacksod, in County Mayo, the westernmost promontory of Europe, far from the many lands devastated by the iron storms of World War II.

STAR QUEST is a unique fusion of retro sci-fi and poignant human drama. Beneath the shimmering veneer of the retro sci-fi fantasies lies a moving narrative of hope, friendship, and acceptance. Emotional, cinematic, and rooted in character, 'STAR QUEST’ is a tribute to the enduring legacy of classic science fiction, and a testament to the extraordinary power of the human heart.

Caitríona is dead and eagerly awaiting the death of her sister, Nell, so that the war between them in life can continue.

In this tribute to James Joyce, Fionnula Flanagan gives a tour-de-force performance as a half-dozen or so women in Joyce's real and fictional worlds. When she portrays his wife Nora remembering their time together, Flanagan captures the era and the author in lyrical detail. As Sylvia Beach, the woman who first published Ulysses, new dimensions concerning the importance of Nora in Joyce's literary visions of women emerge, and when Flanagan interprets Joyce characters like Molly Bloom or a washerwoman from Finnegan's Wake, the beauty of Joyce's language shines through the melodious words.

A young boy falls in love with a dead rat. It begins to rot him, setting off a frenzy in his village with disastrous consequences

A young Irish recruitment agent must navigate the challenges of his job and the temptation of emigration as he tries to decide whether to stay in Ireland or start a new life abroad.

In this historical miniseries created for BBC Northern Ireland, four brothers struggle to survive during the Irish potato famine of the 1840s while facing persecution from an agent (Michael Kitchen) of their indifferent English landlord. Looking on in horror as their primary food source dwindles, the Phelan brothers (portrayed by real-life siblings Joe, Mark, Paul and Stephen McGann) are torn between nonviolent protest and bloody revolt.

A eulogy to the greatest institution in Irish society, the pub, or more specifically the traditional Irish publicans who run them. Speaking to pub owners all over Ireland, Alex Fegan gets into the heart of what makes "the Irish pub" the institution that it is.

A husband and father is haunted by the consequences of a one-night stand, a young man returns to his home town to reflect on the tragic events that he left to escape, and a student’s holiday in Corsica proves an opportunity for friendship, reflection and self-discovery. An intimate collection of stories of fleeting encounters, private worlds and enduring memories both cherished and traumatic.

Emerging from rural Ireland, Edna O’Brien broke multiple taboos with her sexually provocative literature and equally adventurous love life. Here, she opens up about her past with additional perspectives offered by Gabriel Byrne, Walter Mosely, and others.

In their debut documentary Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor take as their point of departure the compelling 18th Century figure, Ambrose O'Higgins, and attempt to retrace his remarkable journey from Ireland to Chile.

Two bureaucrats discuss the potential suicide of a man standing perfectly still in front of a door that opens into the night sky and a fatal drop.

Ireland, Easter, 1916. In Dublin, Irish rebel Patrick Pearse leads a revolt to free Ireland from the grips of the British Empire. Owen, a young Irish patriot, wants to join them in their fight for freedom.

The world of nursery rhymes has turned on its head. The three little pigs are monsters, the old woman who lives in a shoe has sold her children into slavery, and pieces of Humpty Dumpty still lie scattered all over the road. Duck Ugly and his motley army stage a mutiny...

At eleven years old Joe Norman is told by his dying father that he is an alien hiding on earth. Joe believes him. He grows up to be a die-hard fan-boy working in a comic shop. When he falls for down-to-earth Maria, a fellow sci-fi fan, he is inspired to lead a more normal social existence. Until intergalactic bounty hunters track Joe down at his new office and the couple soon learn the dangerous truth about who Joe really is.

Two distant brothers with turbulent pasts in the child care system find themselves living under the same roof, and must make peace with their troubled history and look towards the future.

When Tomás returns to his remote island holiday home he discovers his reclusive wife and child have vanished. With nowhere to turn and a storm approaching, he is forced to place his trust in the small community's lone retired police officer, Labhaoise, to investigate. As the search takes an unexpected turn, some uncomfortable truths are revealed. Meanwhile the storm looms ever closer.

Trapped in a lonely existence, reclusive widower Roy passes the days by cold-calling strangers from the phone book, looking for brief moments of companionship. But when he accidentally calls adult hotline worker Cara, an unlikely friendship is born that will help them both rediscover the joy of life.

Eilis is addicted to mustard. When she falls madly in love, she's sure her demons are finally banished, but when the relationship breaks down her shameful addiction to the yellow stuff returns with a vengeance.

An impossible love story between Yossi, a former IDF soldier, and Dora, a mysterious French photographer visiting Israel, as they both struggle in vain to leave their pasts behind.

A man and woman spend a last night on the beach together after deciding to split up

After a police investigation, a young mother, confused and scared, confesses to a crime she did not commit and is charged with murder.

"Street Leagues" follows the men and women of the Irish Homeless Street Leagues as they overcome homelessness and addiction through the power of sport. The film documents their journey to playing in the Homeless World Cup and features contributions from Colin Farrell who is an ambassador for the street leagues.

Five office workers are taken hostage by shy colleague Neil and his evil hand-puppet Morgan. They have one request: their boss's head on a plate. Tensions mount, and as the cops arrive, Morgan grows impatient...