Eoin Macken’s Here Are the Young Men has been announced as the closing film for the 28th Raindance Film Festival. In response to the global pandemic, the 28th Raindance Film Festival will this year safely proceed as a hybrid of remote engagement and live activity, running 28th October to 7th November online and live in London.
The film is a coming-of-age drama, based on the debut novel of Irish author Rob Doyle, which was published in 2014. Set in the summer of 2003, it sees aimless teenager Matthew (Dean-Charles Chapman) yearn after his childhood sweetheart, Jen (Anya Taylor-Joy), an independent girl on her own trajectory. Matthew is soon pulled into a world of nihilistic, toxic masculinity by a charismatic friend (Finn Cole), while another precocious friend (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) starts to succumb to paranoia.
Here Are the Young Men is produced by Richard Bolger (Cardboard Gangsters) for Irish production company TYM Productions and Noah Haeussner for Union Entertainment Group, with support from Screen Ireland. Edwina Casey will co-produce, with Paul W.S. Anderson, Andrew Davies Gans, Conor Barry and Michael Raimondi as executive producers.
Here Are the Young Men previously premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh, where it won the Bingham Ray New Talent Award for co-producer Edwina Casey Subsequently it has played in official competition at the Giffoni Film Festival.
Macken will attend the premiere at London’s Vue West End cinema and participate in a Q&A, which is one of just 6 featuring in-person talent. The venue will have reduced audience capacity in order to adhere to social distancing guidelines, and masks are compulsory.
Another Irish feature at the festival is John Connors’ debut feature documentary Endless Sunshine on a Cloudy Day. The film explores resilience through the stories of father and daughter Anthony and Jade McCann, who were both diagnosed with cancer within days of each other.
Endless Sunshine on a Cloudy Day premiered in Ireland at the Dublin International Film Festival in February where it won the Audience Award, following a rapturous standing ovation.
Storytelling brings us together. This year more than ever, we need the medium of film to unite us, inspire us, and help us to feel empowered and not isolated. No matter where you are in the UK, as long as you have a screen you can be a part of the Raindance Film Festival. There’s no stopping us.
Elliot Grove, Founder – Raindance Film Festival