An Klondike director Dathaí Keane’s debut feature film, Finky, has been selected for the First Feature competition at the forthcoming Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia.
The film is a psychological drama that tells the story of Micí Phincí Ó Foghlú (Dara Devaney), a young musician with a tragic past who is crippled in a car accident and given a chance at redemption when he is recruited by a violent, avant-garde circus.
Keane wrote the script with Diarmuid de Faoite, and the film is produced by Eileen Seoighe and Pierce Boyce for Abú Media Film Productions. Finky was funded by Screen Ireland, TG4, and the BAI, with support from Section 481 under the Cine4 scheme.
Black Nights Film Festival (aka PÖFF – Pimedate Ööde Filmifestival) takes place annually in the end of November in Tallinn, Estonia. It is the only FIAPF-accredited competitive feature film festival in Northern Europe. PÖFF is the one of the largest film festivals in Northern Europe. The festival, its sub-festivals and the audiovisual industry platform Industry@Tallinn hosted around 1200 film professionals and journalists in 2018.
Running since 2015, the First Feature Competition is the festival’s international competition showcasing films that are the feature debuts of talented new filmmakers. The programme embodies the festival’s mission to discover emerging creative voices from all over the world, offering them a first launchpad and help them to gain international recognition.
The competition will be overseen by an international jury of film industry professionals, that will be announced in the second half of October. They will hand out the following prizes: Best film and a 5000 euro grant shared by the director and producer of the film, along with two Special Prizes.
First Feature Competition
WP = World Premiere; IP = International Premiere; EP = European Premiere
- Dance With Me (Jahan, Ba Man Beraghs) – Soroush Sehat (Iran) IP
- Darkness (Buio) – Emanuela Rossi (Ita) IP
- Finky – Dathaí Keane (Ire) IP
- Isaac – Jurgis Matulevičius (Lith-Pol) WP
- Obscure – Kunlin Wang (US-Chi) IP
- On the Quiet (Szép csendben) – Zoltán Nagy (Hun) IP
- Stay Still (Stillstehen) – Elisa Mishto (Ger) IP
- Stories From the Chestnut Woods (Zgodbe iz kostanjevih gozdov) – Gregor Božič (Slo-Ita-Ger) EP
- Supernova – Bartosz Kruhlik (Pol) IP
- Tomorrow We Are Free (Morgen Sind Wir Frei) – Hossein Pourseifi (Ger) IP
- A Dog’s Death (La muerte de un perro) – Matías Ganz (Uru-Fra-Arg) WP
- Dust and Ashes – Park Hee-kwon (S Kor) WP
- Looted – Rene Pannevis (UK) WP
- Lorni – The Flaneur – Wanphrang Diengdoh (Ind) WP
- Mother (Mater) – Jure Pavlović (Cro-Serb-Fra-Bos/Herz) WP
- The Names of the Flowers – Bahman Tavoosi (Bol-Qat-US-Can) WP
- Saul at Night – Cory Santilli (US) WP
- The Seeker (O Buscador) – Bernardo Barreto (Bra) WP