Alan Mulligan’s debut drama, The Limit Of, will be released in Irish cinemas on April 5th. The film was IFTA nominated for Best Actress last year for Sarah Carroll’s mesmerising turn.
The story is rooted in Alan Mulligan’s career as a young banker during the Celtic Tiger years and its crushing aftermath. The film captures the rapacious greed of the financial world and society’s ever-growing need for control.
James Allen (Laurence O’Fuarain – Black 47, Vikings) is a successful, controlling, thirty-something banker living alone and working in Dublin city at the tail end of the recession. When a family tragedy occurs due to the ruthlessness of his employer, he takes decisive action to try to make things right.
Meanwhile, his enigmatic co-worker Alison (IFTA Best Actress-nominated – Sarah Carroll) has her own agenda, which puts her on a collision course with James, triggering and a dark spiral of deceit, revenge, and murder.
The Limit Of is written and directed by Mayo-man Alan Mulligan and produced by his brother Anthony Mulligan, alongside producer Tim Palmer (Into The West, Patrick’s Day). It premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2017, when we caught up with the director.
When I first started writing this film I was feeling limited in my life by the choices I had made. Limited by my career, my financial burdens, my desires and even by who I loved. I hope this film speaks to people who may feel limited or lost at the moment. We are in a manipulative world where banks push loans as a way of achieving a certain idea of success for the ordinary person but as the film explores, debt and greed can ruin relationships and be as dangerous as cigarettes to our health.
Alan Mulligan, Writer/Director
It is rare to see a first time director having such a stylistic vision and the film has a very European feel to it. But one of the things that attracted m to the project is there is a sense of genuinely not knowing what was going to happen next – or who it was going to happen to! That is very rare.
Tim Palmer, Producer – Ignition Film Productions
We’re delighted to see the Mulligan brothers’ stunning feature debut coming to cinemas. Making a full feature on a tiny budget like this takes real grit and determination, and to achieve the buzz and acclaim they have despite some pretty serious setbacks – including producer Anthony “Mulligan’s successful fight against brain cancer and their need to care for their late father who succumbed to the same illness in January is a truly remarkable achievement.
Robert McCann Finn, Distributor – Sentioar