Death of A Super Hero

98min - Dir: Ian Fitzgibbon

 “Fitzgibbon has achieved something special…the pic’s general appeal will lie in its honest and touching performances.” - Variety

14-year-old Donald Delpe (Thomas Brodie-Sangster, young Sam in Love Actually) has to face a number of trials the average teenager doesn't even have to think about, least of which is the cancer that's killing him. Rather than face this real and unpleasant world he delves into the imaginary world of superheroes and villains.

Donald (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) is dying of cancer, expressing his angst through drawing dark comics which his parents find disturbing. After a pseudo–suicide attempt, he is sent to see Dr. Adrian King (Andy Serkis, the voices of Gollum in Lord of the Rings and Captain Haddock in Tintin), a cardigan-wearing, Vivaldi-listening, grieving-over-his-wife’s-death psychologist. In the manner of such films as Good Will Hunting, Adrian and Donald break every ethical code, becoming best friends. But it’s not until Donald meets Shelly (Aisling Loftus), the new sassy girl in school, that he finds a reason to live.

Filmed on location in Dublin and Wicklow, the feature is based on the 2005 novel by internationally acclaimed author Anthony McCarten, who also wrote the screenplay.

Ian FitzGibbon was born in Dublin and grew up in Belgium. He is an actor, writer and director of the features A Film with Me in It (2008) and Perrier’s Bounty (2009) both screened at the Festival.

Variety lauded the Irish/German co-production saying that “Fitzgibbon has achieved something special…the pic’s general appeal will lie in its honest and touching performances.”

Screen Daily wrote "impressive cast and moving storyline… Serkis and Brodie-Sangster form a convincing and subtle bond."

The Runway

88min - Dir: Ian Power

This pacey comedy is a nostalgic reminder of simpler times in a cash-poor, community-rich Ireland and combined with wonderful performances, is a gem of a family film. - RTE [Taragh Loughrey-Grant]

Based on real life events, the film opens in 1983 when a South American pilot crash lands his plane in a tiny Co. Cork field. Soon, against all the odds, the local’s villagers are building a runway to get him back into the air and safely home.

That’s exactly the kind of true to life storyline that has crowd pleaser written all over it, which is probably why The Runway walked off with top honors at the Galway Film Fleadh (Festival) in 2010.

Demian Bichir (star of Showtime’s Weeds and Stephen Soderberg’s Che) plays the lost South American pilot flawlessly with able support from the beautiful young Irish actress Kerry Condon (Angela's Ashes, Rome), and the film is shot in the timeless, sleepy little Irish village of Schull in West Cork.

Written and directed by young up and coming Irish director Ian Power, The Runway reproduces many of the true life events. The local people of Dromoleen come together fix up the plane just as they did in real life, and they also lay an extensive new runway at the crash site just as it happened years ago.

In doing all of this in reality they caught, however briefly, the imagination of the entire nation at the time -- and eventually the caught the imagination of Power himself, whose love for the tale is evident in every frame he films.

Power’s new fictional take introduces us to nine year old Paco Thomas, a young Cork boy who lives with his hardworking mum and misses his Spanish-born sailor dad, who he doesn’t even remember.

Mother and son live in the crippled town of Dromoleen, where Paco spends his days playacting with his traveler friend Frogs and learning Spanish from a linguaphone tape at night (in case his long lost dad ever comes home).

Then late one night Paco’s life (and that of his little town) is turned upside down when a mysterious Colombian pilot crash-lands his plane in the woods just outside of town. But just who is this handsome but impossible to understand stranger, and what does he want?

As the film takes us gently toward an answer, Power manages to skillfully weave all the disparate strands of his story until a compelling portrait of the town and its people emerge.

Writer / Director Ian Power can also claim credit for Buskers, his 2000 film school short that was a hit at one of our Irish Short Films evenings – think snot nosed four year old Stephen Moran singing U2’s “Still haven’t found what I’m looking for”!

Film Ireland  ::  Much like the runway itself at the time, this movie should capture the hearts and imagination of the rest of the country.

IFTA  ::  The Runway was chosen as Best Irish Feature at the Galway Film Fleadh 2010 and was this year’s winner of the Directors Finders Series at the Directors Guild of America.

RTE  ::  Winner of the Galway Film Fleadh's Best Irish Feature, 'The Runway' is a heart-warming comedy, loosely based on the true story of a South American pilot who crash landed his plane in Cork in 1983.

The Other Side of Sleep

88min - Dir: Rebecca Daly

“An arresting debut feature from Irish director Rebecca Daly, The Other Side of Sleep refuses to give in to simple classification. At once an absorbing mood piece, disquieting fever dream and stark crime drama, Daly’s film avoids the well-worn conventions of the suspense thriller to dig at something far more brooding and uneasy.” - www.tiff.net

The Nephew

105min - Dir: Eugene Brady

“the Nephew is surprisingly good fun, and the instances of emotional catharsis are well outnumbered by comic moments.” - www.fortunecity.com

Pierce Brosnan produced and co-stars in this Irish family drama, directed by Eugene Brady and set on the island of Inis Dara. Since farmer Tony Egan (Donal McCann) has had no contact with his sister over two decades, he's startled to find she married a black New Yorker and managed a Hell's Kitchen grocery, facts he learns when her son, artist Chad Egan-Washington (Hill Harper of Spike Lee films) arrives on the island to scatter her ashes. A romance between Chad and Aislin (Aislin McGuckin) disturbs her father, bartender Joe Brady (Brosnan), not for racial reasons, but because Joe once had an ill-fated love affair with Chad's mother. Chad's questions dig up other long-buried family secrets and tensions.

Tony Egan (Donal McCann) devotes his time to farming a small holding on the Irish island Inishdaragh. He gets a shock when he receives a letter from America from his estranged sister. It is twenty years since she left, and she has written to Tony asking him to look after her teenage son Chad, since she is dying and he is her only living relative. When Chad (Hill Harper) arrives, his presence causes a reaction among the people of the island, and also revives a dark episode in Tony's past, which had lain simmering since his sister's departure.

There are a number of enduring themes in Irish story-telling, regardless of whether the medium is prose, theatre or film-making. One is the claustrophobic nature of small-town or rural life in Ireland, which is accentuated in an island community. No relationships of any sort can escape the attention of the community, and the close-knit nature of the community means that a destructive act can ripple throughout and affect everyone. Another is the long-lived nature of people's memories, where deeds of ancestors continue to colour the lives of the living. And, of course, no self-respecting Irish drama is complete without the sea. The sea, which introduces visitor and invader alike, and which provides the means of escape, usually to the new world (America).

All of these themes feature in The Nephew, though happily as merely background material for a light-hearted and funny love story. It is probably just as well, since the story (by Jacqueline O'Neill and Jack. P. Steele) is almost too complex for its own good. Chad returns to Inisdaragh to learn more about his mother's family and background. His quest causes unease amongst several of the locals, especially his uncle, but also the local bar-owner, Mr. O'Brady (Pierce Brosnan, who also has a credit as executive producer). Egan and O'Brady hate each other, and the source of that hatred is a relationship between O'Brady and Chad's mother decades earlier, and Egan's opposition to it. Matters aren't helped when Chad begins to woo O'Brady's daughter, Aislin (Aislin McGuckin). If that wasn't enough, Chad incurs the enmity of Peter (who secretly desires Aislin), and whom Egan pointedly ignores every time they meet, even though Egan is friendly with his mother, the local postmistress (played by Sinéad Cusack). Phew !

Luckily, the potential for a gloomy drama is avoided by large helpings of humour. Donal McCann is one of Ireland's most underrated and versatile actors, and he conveys just enough bitter humour with dourness, guilt and regret to retain our sympathies. Egan's actions in the past has irreparably changed the course of his family for worse rather than better, and now Chad's arrival offers him a similar set of choices - can he live with the same consequences ? The blossoming relationship between Chad and Aislin is also nicely done (though Chad's interest in her is never clear - her friend Rachel (Lorraine Pilkington) seems far more fun).

There are some nicely observed scenes, particularly Chad's encounters with farming, and a very funny (and accurate) depiction of a choir at a Roman Catholic mass, which features Tony (Phelim Drew) who appears throughout the movie to liven it up. Unfortunately, one of the better moments is spoiled by the trailer.

The film is not without its flaws - the relationships dovetail too neatly, and are far too conveniently resolved, considering the dark nature of the story. In fact, the story would be better served with less characters, since some of them never develop beyond bare outlines. The character of Peter (Luke Griffin) does nothing but sulk and glower in every scene, but there's little else he can do since he has so little dialogue. Pierce Brosnan seems so intent on not upstaging anyone that he practically fades into the background - it's a shame that his character does not have a more central role.

The director never really captures the feeling of a small island community either - panning shots of mountain ranges and expansive lakes don't help (the movie was filmed in Wicklow, by the look of it), and there are probably too many shots of characters staring dolefully out to sea.

Nevertheless, the Nephew is surprisingly good fun, and the instances of emotional catharsis are well outnumbered by comic moments.