Discoveries from Ireland World Cinema

Struggling children's book writer Harold Finch gains an unexpected house guest in the form of an ageing, hyper-intelligent mosquito named Anabel.

Criminal psychologist Cathrin Blake is called to an emergency in the middle of the night: A young woman is threatening to throw herself to her death from a high-rise building. Cathrin knows the disturbed woman – Moon Flynn was in therapy with Cathrin a few years ago for a borderline disorder, but stopped it prematurely.

New kid Rory falls in love with the dentist's daughter Genie, and discovers painfully that falling in love can mean losing not only your teeth but your life....

With his marriage crumbling, Seamus, a struggling fisherman, is unexpectedly offered the delicious pleasures of an unusual new life. But to turn his desperation into hope, Seamus will need to put his trust in a group of misfits whose project becomes more and more deranged. This absurdist dark comedy asks if there really is more out there for each of us or "IS THIS IT?".

In 1970’s Ireland, a man is brutally interrogated. Based on the short story by Stephen King.

A boy learns to play the piano.

A young woman struggling with Borderline Personality Disorder goes about her day until something goes terribly wrong.

A recovering addict’s world falls apart when a mysterious box of cereal enters his life.

Unimpressive, 24-year-old virgin, Eamonn (Kris Marshall) lives in Belfast with his mother, during the Troubles. Local girl, Mary Malloy (Tara O'Neil) decides that since she has probably slept with every man in town Eamonn should be next on her list. He proves to be quite a catch... and Mary gets pregnant even though she took precautions. A doctor discovers that Eamonn has a very high sperm count and, with the birth rate in Ireland decreasing, Millicent (Bronagh Gallagher) decides to hire out Eamonn to women whose husbands have been firing blanks; all with the blessing of the local Catholic church which sees it as morally better than artificial means.

It is the early years of Christianity, and Emperor Nero is hellbent on destroying the lot of them. Caught up amongst the chaos are the homeless orphans of Rome fleeing from the fires Nero is starting to persecute the Christians. The orphans find their way to Ben and Helena, secret Christian leaders in Rome who are the "Story keepers" of the tales of Jesus. With their help, they flee the burning city and head out to a safe haven for the Christians. Along the way, they meet up with colorful characters of all walks of life while learning about the life of Jesus.

A retired soldier, tortured by the untimely death of his beloved wife and the apparent suicide of one of his friends, suspects foul play. Based on a novel by Sean Kelly.

This musical film follows the journey of five teenagers as they struggle with identity amd how the world perceives them. All the songs were written and preformed by members of County Wexford Youth Film Project.

After a Parkinson's diagnosis a classically trained pianist embarks on a path of self discovery leading him to a punk band. Their rebellious lifestyle and music provide a distraction to his troubles and a sharp contrast to his old life.

When Ireland's most notorious amateur sports star becomes the first man in history to fail a test for PEDs, he agrees to coach the country's worst team in order to try and rebuild his shattered reputation.

A short film about finding your identity. Based on a true story: my handwriting is awful.

Melody returns to her old home to Fairlands the funeral of their daughter, June to attend. But Melody not recognize their city regains because it is almost entirely disappeared under tons of sand. She also learns that they have a 10-year-old grandson, River, has. Melody River will take into their new life, but this is fighting back. He wants to hatch the eggs of ostriches, which he has always fed with his mother. Rivers father, Scoop, a lazy musician and the man in the city post office, wants Melody leaves the city. Here are a lot of conflicts, to Melody learns the truth. But haunts as a sand storm the city, suddenly everything changes.

Damo and Ivor embark on the mother of all adventures to find the last piece of their family puzzle and track down their long lost brother John Joe.

Two rival female boxers meet in a gym and are drawn into an escalating match where rounds of combat mirror rounds of queer intimacy — a wordless love story told through sweat, bruises, endurance, and surrender.

With the ghosts of his past back to haunt him in the wake of a mysterious death, Detective Brian Lancaster struggles with his sobriety while searching for the truth surrounding his sister’s fatal drowning as a child.

Tina, a recently widowed farmer, doesn't want her daughter to move back to the city and leave her alone. When Seamus arrives on the farm talking about a date, she decides to intervene.

The incongruous tale of when legendary Hollywood B-movie producer Roger Corman created a studio in Connemara, Ireland in the mid-1990s.

Death is training his son in the art and responsibilities of the family business. His son does well until he's sent out on his own to claim an accident victim. Instead, he's asked by a friend of the dying man to help with CPR. Taken aback, he assents, the dying man is resuscitated, and Death's son is in the doghouse with dad. Enraged, pop gives his son 24 hours to deliver a corpse, so the young man sets out to ice the man who asked him for help earlier that day. Junior's target is a young actor, Tom, going through opening night and loved by Sarah, a rather histrionic young woman. A near-Death experience awaits them all as Junior comes of age.

An 18 year old girl called Joy has gone missing. Another girl called Helen is a few weeks away from leaving her care home. Helen is asked to 'play' Joy in a police reconstruction that will retrace Joy's last known movements. Joy had everything. A loving family, a boyfriend, a bright future. Helen, parent-less, has lived in institutions all her life and has never been close to anyone. Gradually Helen begins to immerse herself into the role, visiting the people and places that Joy knew; quietly and carefully insinuating her way into the lost girl's life. But is Helen trying to find out what happened to Joy that day, or is she searching for her own identity?

Teens stuck in the dark

On Halloween night in Dublin, rugby player Jace meets aspiring filmmaker Charlie at a college party. They both attend Trinity but come from different worlds. Charlie is trans and involved in the arts, while Jace mostly hangs out with other straight guys from his team or business course. Despite their differences, they strike up a connection. After the party is abruptly broken up by the Guards, they continue getting to know each other while wandering around nighttime Dublin, reminiscing and sharing their dreams and concerns for life after college. When a startling connection from their shared past is revealed, Jace is forced to reckon with long-buried actions, and the social identity he’s taken for granted.

A couple struggling to fix their doomed relationship get lost in a dangerous forest that refuses to let them escape.

Two disconnected English brothers are ostracized in a small village in the west of Ireland. Drawn back together by the unexpected and mysterious death of their father, they are immediately at odds until they find a girl dumped still alive in the moors. What follows is a bizarre turn of events, both beautiful and surreal, as the two brothers search for their own resolutions. At times both a love story and a tragic tale, the story is inspired by a piece in John Steinbeck's East of Eden.

Based on the Scholastic book series by Maddy Mara, Dragon Girls follows three very different girls who are transported to a magical realm where they are transformed into powerful, shimmering dragons! As they come to grips with their new dragon powers, they realize that this is just the start of their epic adventure…they’ve been called to defend the realm from the evil Shadow Queen! Dragon Girls is a joyous series about a group of brilliant, brave girls celebrating their friendship and discovering the ground-shaking strength of their own inner roar.

The name of the documentary comes from Drew's recording of "September Song", the Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson song made popular through recordings by a number of artists. With the founding of his revolutionary folk band, The Dubliners in 1962, Ronnie Drew has become synonymous with his native Dublin. September Song (2008) is an intimate portrayal of the legendary singer in which he recalls growing up in his granny's house in Dun Laoghaire, the founding of The Dubliners in O'Donoghue's pub on Merrion Row, his days of touring the world, the poignant loss of his wife of forty years, and his own battle with cancer. Featuring interviews with son Phelim, daughter Cliodhna and friends and fans Bono, Billy Connolly and Damien Dempsey.

A single moment in time. A guy and a girl, recently split up from a long-term relationship get back together for one night. But love and loathing form a precarious mix for these young lovers as they navigate the rough terrain of life.

An Irish codger, 110, wants a piece of the action for doing a British producer's TV show.

Based on true events, a carefree young woman is trapped in an infinite loop of incarceration and escape, from a 1950’s mental hospital.

Staged as a series of voiceover sessions, written with gloriously off-balanced precision and dipped in the color green, THE FUTURE TENSE unfolds as a poignant tale of tales, exploring the filmmakers’ own experiences in aging, parenting, mental illness, along with the brutal history that lies submerged beneath Ireland’s heavy, moist earth.

Anna, a nine year old girl, is determined to find her father, but the only clue she has of him is a picture that her mother keeps pinned to the wall. When Anna’s mother falls ill, Anna is given a chance to discover more about her identity, which has been hidden from her.

Directed by Tiernan MacBride, this short film – nominated for a Palme d’Or in 1978 for Best Short Film – is a visual representation of the Irish folk song Arthur McBride and The Sergeant, played and sung by Irish singer Paul Brady. The lyrics tell the story of Arthur McBride (Paul Bennett) and his cousin (Paul Wilson) who fight off a recruiting sergeant (Godfrey Quigley) when he tries to enlist them in the British army.

Irish-Celtic-pop siblings, The Corrs, perform songs from their first two albums for 43,000 fans at Lansdowne Road, Dublin's old rugby fields.

Based on real stories, using both actors and non-actors, and filmed on location in Dublin, A Week in the Life of Martin Cluxton (1971) is a rare example of Irish social realism. After years in an industrial school, Martin Cluxton (Derek King) returns home to Dublin but finds considerable prejudice and little opportunity. Broadcast on RTÉ, it was directed by Brian MacLochlainn, co-written by Caoimhín Ó Marcaigh and MacLochlainn, with music by jazz great Louis Stewart.

Interlocking interviews of 4 women interred in various Magdalene asylums and/or orphanages because of out-of-wedlock pregnancies, being sexually assaulted, or just being "too pretty".

A young Prince is visited by the Ghost of his father and compelled to vengeance - but can he stop thinking for long enough to do it?

A young woman on a bike ride suffers a head injury and is transported back in time to an event which occurred on the same spot years before during the Irish War of Independence when an informer was captured by the IRA.

The Northern Bank chain was owned by the National Australia Bank. Diana, a young Australian police detective who is in Belfast at the same time, seizes the opportunity to investigate the biggest crime of her career and prove herself to her misogynistic bosses back home who have passed her over for promotion. Diana is teamed with Crawford, a gruff, veteran Northern Irish police detective who does not want her help. As the case takes one more bizarre turn after another, Diana and Crawford learn to grudgingly respect each other. As they almost give up hope of catching the criminals, Diana comes up with an ingenious plan which will make the stolen millions worthless.

A young man with Down's Syndrome tricks his sister into a road trip to go to a concert, while being pursued by their mum. With no phones, no money and no plan, can they make it?

Three journeys from Belfast to Glasgow uncover how a football club’s disappearance reshaped a community. Through intimate character portraits, the film examines identity, memory, and belonging in the shadow of conflict.

A woman is excited about the approaching birth of her first child.

In a world upended by a complete breakdown of society, two couples hide out in a lakeside cabin hoping to survive the crisis.

Mick and Kev, teen Irish lads, are at the shore, throwing rocks at empty cans, drinking cider. Mick's the pushy one, engaging Kev in a game of mumbly peg, his hand on top of Kev's, fingers splayed. As Mick moves the knife between their fingers, a train is heard approaching. What's Mick's purpose?

After surviving a violent assault by a serving soldier who was convicted but walked free with a suspended sentence, Natasha O'Brien refused to stay silent.

A black comedy exploring some of life's common fears: fear of the unknown, of failure, rejection and finally the fear of death. Narrated by George Takei.

Philip is a misfit at his new school. When he is bullied, his mother decides to sort out things between him and his schoolmates, because his father unable to do so, as he is currently doing time in prison.

True story of Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone, inspired by his mother.

Sinéad Ní Uallacháin is on a mission to change people's perceptions of Peig Sayers.

Nora and Devon are two young lovers who set out one day to confront a figure from Nora's past.

An intimate portrait of a resilient and spirited young girl and her proud and dignified family, who are part of Ireland's "traveller" community.

John, a young man struggling with the death of his brother, looks to get revenge on the men who took him out. But as the lies build up, the true identity of his brothers killer becomes more and more difficult to grasp.

Goodbye Darling is one day in the enduring love story of Irish Volunteer Michael Joseph O’Rahilly and his wife Nancy. It is day five of the 1916 Rising, and as the fighting intensifies, a concerned Nancy seeks comfort and diversion by playing the piano, unaware that her husband is leaving the beleaguered G.P.O. to lead the charge that will ultimately claim his life.

Struggling children's book writer Harold Finch gains an unexpected house guest in the form of an ageing, hyper-intelligent mosquito named Anabel.

A series of interrelated stories that bring Nena, Sean and Alan together. Alan, gentle and insecure, yearns for acceptance and connection. Vibrant yet guilt-ridden, Nena embarks on a quest for redemption and self-discovery as she battles with her inner demons while bereaved Sean lingers and struggles to conquer his depression.

Jimmy and Tommy are inseperable brothers. Tommy is older, he is autistic. He lives in a world of patterns he has created in his mind. Jimmy is a visitor to this honest world and falls into its rhythm.

A couple's dark fantasties about one another play out during an awkward date.

On January 30th, 1972, the British Army shot dead thirteen unarmed civilians taking part in a civil rights march in Derry. At the subsequent Tribunal of Inquiry Lord Chief Justice Widgery exonerated the soldiers and blighted the reputations of those who were killed and wounded by describing them as gunmen and bombers. In 1998, in a move that was widely seen as significant in sealing the Northern Ireland peace process, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced a new Tribunal of Inquiry to be led by Lord Saville of Newdigate. This highly personal documentary, made by Margo Harkin who was witness to the events, follows the 6-year long search for the truth at the second Inquiry until its momentous conclusion on June 15th 2010 when the report was finally published.'