Irish Abroad: Darkness on the Edge of Town heads to the Cambridge Film Festival

Irish indie Western Darkness on the Edge of Town has been selected for the 35th edition of the historic Cambridge Film Festival and will have its UK premiere on the 9th September as part of the Late at the Light strand.

Written and directed by Patrick Ryan, the film stars Emma Eliza Regan, Emma Willis and Brian Gleeson. After premiering at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2014 it has gone on to receive its international premiere at the prestigious Slamdance Film Festival in Park City at the beginning of 2015. Following a sold out US premiere and strong reviews, it was picked up by New York-based Candy Factory Films and is scheduled to be released in the US and Canada this October.

After also being acquired for international distribution by Canadian-based company CinemaVault, Darkness on the Edge of Town has gone on to play many highly regarded international festivals, such as the Transilvania Film Festival in June and the Giffoni Film Festival in July.

The Cambridge Film Festival is one of the most historic and longest running film festivals in the UK. It focuses on screening a range of UK and international films that have debuted at leading film festivals. In the past it has played host to the UK premieres of Reservoir Dogs, Blue Jasmine, and Broken Flowers.

The festival programme describes Darkness on the Edge of Town as, “a rugged and bold revenge noir. Wide lenses capture the glorious emerald sprawl of Kerry, with careful characterisation allowing the dark chemistry of the two leads to develop. On a tiny crowdfunded budget of €18,000, Ryan elevates Darkness on the Edge of Town beyond a plain murder mystery, embracing Shakespearian levels of dramatic tension and gory tragedy”.

The film plays at the festival on September 9th and 11th.