Megan K. Fox’s Cailín Álainn has been released online today. The film is a tender bi-lingual drama about a transgender teen who comes out for the first time at a cross-dress disco in the Gaeltacht.
The film was made under the inaugural Kerry Arts Council Short Film Bursary 2018. Written and directed by Megan K. Fox, produced by Hazel Cullen for TW Films, and shot by DIFF Discovery Award-winning DOP Burschi Wojnar, the production took to the beautiful Gaeltacht region of Chorca Dhuibhne on the Dingle Peninsula to shoot in Spring 2019.
It’s festival run was somewhat hampered by the pandemic, but still saw the film screen at Academy affiliated festivals including Newport Beach Film Festival, Galway Film Fleadh and Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival in 2020, along with screenings at the BAFTA qualifying Aesthetica Film Festival and a coveted nomination for the most prestigious LGBTQ+ short film award in the world, the Iris Prize. It screens today at the aGLIFF festival in the United States.
I wanted to write a story about how modern values interact with tradition in our country, and how some of our more seemingly outdated customs could be reframed to offer safe spaces to young people finding their way when it comes to gender exploration and sexuality. We had an incredibly talented team on board from our DP Burschi Wojnar to our fabulous costume designer Gwen Jeffares-Hourie, and a cast of eager and bold young actors ready to dig their teeth in to complex roles. It was a tough shoot but I was blessed with my crew and I’m so thankful to the Kerry Arts Council for taking a chance on our project and believing it is a story worth telling in this community.
We are excited to finally share the film with a broader audience online and hope that it will ignite conversation and give hope to young people who are undergoing their own journeys of self discovery.
Megan K. Fox, Writer/Director
Writer/director Megan K. Fox is due to start a stint directing episodes of long-running British soap Eastenders in the new year and is actively persuing more projects in the Irish language.