The 67th Berlinale – Berlin International Film Festival kicks off on February 9th, and with it comes the European Film Market 2017, one of Europe’s biggest film sales events. Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (IFB) will be attending the Berlinale and will host a stand at the European Film Market (EFM) in the Martin Groupius Bau Hotel.
Irish films are well represented at the Berlinale, with Return to Montauk playing in the official competition, Irish co-productions Maudie, The King’s Choice, and The Lost City of Z playing as galas, and also artistic features A Tall Tale and The Welfare of Tomás Ó Hallissy, documentary Atlantic, and video game Everything all featuring in the official programme.
Full details of the films selected, screening and selling can be seen below.
Irish Films in the Official Selection
Atlantic – Culinary Cinema
AtlanticTuesday, February 14 – 22.00 – MGB Cinema
Thursday, February 16 – 14.00 – MGB Cinema
Director: Risteard Ó Domhnaill
Production Company: Scannáin Inbhear
The second feature documentary from acclaimed director Risteard O Domhnaill (The Pipe), Atlantic follows the fortunes of three small fishing communities in Norway, Newfoundland and Arranmore as they struggle to maintain their way of life in the face of mounting economic and ecological challenges, and looks at the threat posed to the ocean’s ecosystem and fishing communities by oil exploration and overfishing. This visually stunning new work, persuasively narrated by Brendan Gleeson, brings the personal stories in the vital resource debate to the fore to explore how these communities must learn from the past in order to secure a brighter future.
Everything – Berlinale Shorts IV:Utopia Unplugged/Berlinale Shorts Goes Kiez
EverythingFriday, February 10 – 16:00 – CinemaxX 5
Tuesday, February 14 – 22:00 – CinemaxX 3
Thursday, February 16 – 17:00 Colosseum 1
Thursday, February 16 – 21:30 – City Kino Wedding
Friday, February 17 – 16:00 – CinemaxX 5
Director: David OReilly
“Whoever you are. Where you are. And whatever you are. You are in the middle. That’s the game.” Everything is a video game. The game is a simulation of the world, seen from the perspective of everyone and everything: Atoms, plants, animals, planets and galaxies. The English philosopher Alan Watts (1915-1973) accompanies this journey as narrator. It’s a simulation of reality where you can see the world from everything’s point of view – it’s kind of a philosophy project in the form of a game. There is no narrative or story – just the world as it is.
The King’s Choice – Panorama Special
The King’s ChoiceSunday, February 12 – 17.20 – CineStar 4
Tuesday, February 14 – 17.30 – Cinemaxx 17
Director: Erik Poppe
Production Company: Newgrange Pictures
On 9 April 1940, the German army invades Norway without having declared war. The Norwegians’ conviction that their consistently neutral policies would protect them from Hitler’s aggressive plans has proved to be a grave mistake. Confusion and chaos soon spread. With Hitler’s blessing, fascist leader Quisling stands poised to become Norway’s Minister-President. But the Norwegian royal family refuses to bend to the will of the Germans. King Haakon VII, who has left Oslo for the village of Nybergsund with his family, his government and countless politicians, proves to be a bastion of calm: should the Norwegian parliament decide to capitulate and bow to the demands from Berlin he will, he declares, abdicate without hesitation. Hitler answers this moral gauntlet with bomb attacks; the Norwegians, however, interpret the King’s words as an appeal to resist.
The Lost City of Z – Berlinale Special Gala
The Lost City of ZTuesday, February 14 – 21:30 – Zoo Palast 1
Wednesday, February 15 – 21:30 – Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Friday, February 17 – 15:00 – Friedrichstadt-Palast
Saturday, February 18 – 09:30 – Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Director: James Gray
Production Company: Bounder & Cad (NI)
Private Percy Fawcett’s humble background means that his chances of promotion in 1920s England are pretty slim. Seconded to a Royal Society land surveying expedition to Bolivia, he finds himself fascinated with the jungle – in spite of the strenuous conditions. He agrees to a further expedition even though an absence of several years will distance him from his wife and mean that his children will barely know him. In the Amazonian rain-forest he finds vestiges of lost civilisations. He becomes convinced of the existence of a sunken metropolis, the mysterious city of Z.
Maudie – Berlinale Special Gala
MaudieWednesday, February 15 – 21.00 – Friedrichstadt-Palast
Thursday, February 16 – 21.30 – Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Director: Aisling Walsh
Production Company: Parallel Films
Maudie is based on the life of Nova Scotia folk artist, Maud Lewis, and is an unlikely romance in which the reclusive Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke) hires a fragile yet determined woman named Maudie (Sally Hawkins) to be his housekeeper. Maudie, bright-eyed but hunched with crippled hands, yearns to be independent, to live away from her protective family. She also yearns, passionately, to create art. Unexpectedly, Everett finds himself falling in love. Maudie charts Everett’s efforts to protect himself from being hurt, Maudie’s deep and abiding love for this difficult man and her surprising rise to fame as a folk painter.
Return to Montauk – Competition
Return to MontaukWednesday, February 15 – 19.00 – Berlinale Palast
Thursday, February 16 – 9.30 – Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Thursday, February 16 – 15.30 – Friedrichstadt-Palast
Sunday, February 19 – 9.30 – Berlinale Palast
Director: Volker Schloendorff
Production Company: Savage Productions
Return to Montauk is based on a screenplay co-written with Brooklyn author Colm Tóibín, and follows a German writer who visits New York for the release of his book, which is about how he meet and fell in love with a young woman in the city 17 years ago. As his wife plans his new book tour he bumps into his original love again, and they decide to spend a weekend together in Montauk, a fishing port on Long Island.
A Tall Tale – Program 2 / Forum Expanded
A Tall TaleFriday, February 10 – 21:30 – Akademie der Künste
Sunday, February 12 – 12:30 – Kino Arsenal 1
Director: Maya Schweizer
Production Company: Askeaton Contemporary Arts
“A thin crack extending from the roof, down the front of the building, and into the adjacent lake,” notes the narrator as he arrives at the House of Usher, thus opening up a parallel between the Irish setting of Maya Schweizer’s cinematic association and Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tale of horror. Orson Welles and other cinematic ghosts seem to lead the spectator of A Tall Tale onwards, passing through a landscape of ruins and films and ruins of films that evoke phantoms and fairies.
The Welfare of Tomás Ó Hallissy – Program 5 / Forum Expanded
The Welfare of Tomás Ó HallissySunday, February 12 – 16.30 – Akademie der Künste
Monday, February 13 – 17.00 – Arsenal 1
Director: Duncan Campbell
Production Company: Nakba FilmWorks, Fastnet Films
Inspired by anthropological studies into the huge incidence of mental illness in rural Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s, The Welfare of Tomás Ó Hallissy revisits Paul Hocking and Mark McCarty’s 1968 production The Village. Seen through the eyes of two American anthropologists who arrive at Dún Chaoin, a small village in the west of Ireland, to study its dying culture, the film is a portrait of a society on the brink of irreversible change. It revolves around the protagonist, Tomás, a speechless 10-year-old boy, whose life spans the cusp of the old world and the new. Meanwhile, the anthropologists question their own methodology as they struggle to get beyond the opaque and ritualistic social relations that define this place as the local community mistrusts and misconstrues their intentions.
Screening at EFM
Crash and Burn
Crash and BurnSunday, February 12 – 14.30 – Cinemaxx 11
Director: Seán Ó Cualáin
Production Company: Dot Television
The motor racing equivalent of George Best and Muhammad Ali all rolled into one, Tommy Byrne went from driving a Mini Cooper in stock-car racing to the big-time in Formula One in a little over four years and was a serious rival of Ayrton Senna’s. Tommy’s rise was meteoric and his fall spectacular. He was a cocky, aggressive driver from humble roots and the F1 glitterati simply didn’t like the mix.
A Dark Song
A Dark SongSunday, February 12 – 11.30 – Marriott Studio
Director: Liam Gavin
Cast: Catherine Walker, Steve Oram, Susan Loughnane, Mark Huberman
Production Company: Samson Films
Liam Gavin’s feature debut, A Dark Song, follows Sophia, a young woman who insists on renting an old house in the remote countryside so that she can hire an occultist. She needs him to perform an ancient invocation ritual, the Abramelin, to summon up Sophia’s Guardian Angel so her wish can be granted. She wishes to talk to her murdered child, a desire that consumes her.
In Loco Parentis
In Loco ParentisThursday, February 9 – 11.30 – Cinemaxx 12
Sunday, February 12 – 18.20 – Cinemaxx 1
Director: Neasa Ní Chianáin, David Rane
Production Company: Soilsiú
This observational documentary follows a year in the lives of two inspirational teachers in the only primary-age boarding school in Ireland. Headfort, a school not unlike Hogwarts with its 18th-century buildings, secret doors and magical woodlands has been home to John and Amanda Leyden for 46 years and a backdrop to their extraordinary careers.
It’s Not Yet Dark
It’s Not Yet DarkSaturday, February 11 – 13.20 – Cinestar 6
Director: Frankie Fenton
Production Company: Kennedy Films
It’s Not Yet Dark tells the groundbreaking story of Simon Fitzmaurice, a talented young Irish filmmaker with ALS (MND), as he embarks on directing his first feature film through the use of his eyes and eye gaze technology.
Nails
NailsFriday, February 10 – 14.40 – Marriott Studio
Director: Dennis Bartok
Cast: Shauna Macdonald, Steve Wall, Ross Noble
Production Company: Fantastic Films
This intense and claustrophobic thriller centres on a happily married track coach and mother, Dana Milgrom, who’s survived a near-death car accident only to find herself paralysed and trapped inside her own body. Forced to communicate via an artificial voice program and hooked to a breathing machine, she becomes convinced that a terrifying presence called “Nails” exists inside her hospital room. No one believes her – not even her own husband and doctors, who think she’s experiencing a mental breakdown.
Pilgrimage
PilgrimageThursday, February 9 – 13.00 – Cinestar 1
Saturday, February 11 – 15.00 – Cinestar Imax
Director: Brendan Muldowney
Cast: Tom Holland, Jon Bernthal, Stanley Weber, Hugh O’Conor, Ruaidhri Conroy, John Lynch, Richard Armitage, Tristan McConnell, Gaetan Wenders, Lochlann O’Mearain
Production Company: Savage Productions
Set in Ireland in 1209, Pilgrimage sees a small group of monks begin a reluctant pilgrimage across an island torn between centuries of tribal warfare and the growing power of Norman invaders. Escorting their monastery’s holiest relic to Rome, the monks’ progress is seen through the eyes of a pious young novice and a mute lay-brother with a violent past. As the true material, political and religious significance of the bejewelled relic becomes dangerously apparent, their path to the east coast becomes increasingly fraught with danger. The monks belatedly realise that in this wild land of ancient superstitions, the faith that binds them together may ultimately lead to their destruction.
Coming to Market
Aithrí/Penance
Aithrí/PenanceDirector: Tom Collins
Cast: Peter Coonan, Terry Byrne, Barry McGovern, Gerry McSorley, Diona Doherty, Dara Deveney, Padraig Parkinson
Production Company: De Facto Films
Unequivocal about the need for violence to force Britain out of Ireland, Father Eoin O’Donnell seals the fate of the young and impressionable Antaine by convincing him to fight in the 1916 Rising. Fifty years later, the reappearance of the now-experienced gunman Antaine in a divided Derry throws Father O’Donnell into turmoil. Once allies, the pair are now placed on opposite sides of the same agenda.
The Belly of the Whale
The Belly Of The WhaleDirector: Morgan Bushe
Cast: Pat Shortt, Lewis MacDougall, Michael Smiley, Art Parkinson, Lauren Kinsella, Neili Conroy, Peter Coonan, Ronan Graham, Cian Callagher
Production Company: Fastnet Films
In the dead of a North County Dublin winter, misfit teenager Joey Moody returns home in a foolhardy bid to reopen his family’s crumbling caravan park. When Joey burns down Ronald Tanner’s camper van, he is forced to find the cash to repay him. The desperate pair, bonded together in misfortune, devise a plan to rob the local amusement arcade, the domain of small town politician, Gits Hegarty.
The Drummer and the Keeper
The Drummer and the KeeperDirector: Nick Kelly
Cast: Dermot Murphy, Jacob McCarthy, Peter Coonan, Charlie Kelly, Adrian Hudson, Aoibhinn McGinnity
Production Company: Calico Pictures
The Drummer and the Keeper is the story of an unlikely friendship between a 25-year-old rock‘n’roll party animal with bipolar disorder who revels in rejecting society’s rules, and a 17-year-old goalkeeper who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome and yearns to fit in.
The Farthest
The FarthestDirector: Emer Reynolds
Production Company: Crossing the Line Productions
Is it humankind’s greatest achievement? 12 billion miles away a tiny spaceship is leaving our solar system and entering the void of deep space. It is the first manmade object ever to do so. Slowly dying within its heart is a plutonium generator that will beat for perhaps another decade before the lights on Voyager finally go out. But this little craft will travel on for millions of years, carrying a Golden Record bearing recordings and images of life on Earth. In all likelihood, Voyager will outlive humanity and all our creations. It could be the only thing to mark our existence. Perhaps someday an alien will find it and wonder.
Grace Jones: The Musical Of My Life
Grace Jones: The Musical of My LifeDirector: Sophie Fiennes
Production Company: Blinder Films
Grace Jones: The Musical Of My Life takes the viewer on an intimate and electrifying journey that moves between four cinematic layers — performance, family, artist and gypsy — to explore the fascinating world of pop cultural phenomenon, Grace Jones. Bound together by musical performance sequences and a voice-over from Grace herself, the film shows us the figure we’ve come to know — wild, androgynous, larger than life — as well as discovering her as a daughter, mother, sister and grandmother. A woman characterised by such contradictions, Grace Jones reminds us of what it is to dare to be truly alive.
Kevin Roche: The Quiet Architect
Kevin Roche: The Quiet ArchitectDirector: Mark Noonan
Production Company: Wavelength Pictures
This documentary portrays the life and work of highly influential architect Kevin Roche, still working at 94. What drives a modest man, with no interest in fame, to refuse retirement and continually look to the future regardless of age? Kevin Roche’s stated philosophy is that “the responsibility of the modern architect is to create a community for a modern society”, and it is through Roche’s work that we examine the relationship between architects, their clients and the public they ultimately serve.
Kissing Candice
Kissing CandiceDirector: Aoife McArdle
Cast: Ann Skelly, Ryan Lincoln, Ryan McParland, Conall Keating, Tony Doyle, Maghnús Foy, James Greene, John Lynch, Caitriona Ennis, Kwaku Fortune, Lalor Roddy
Production Company: Venom Film
17 year old Candice longs to escape the boredom of her seaside town, only finding solace in her vivid imagination.
When a boy she dreams about turns up in real life, she becomes increasingly entangled with a dangerous local gang.
In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America
In the Name of Peace: John Hume in AmericaDirector: Maurice Fitzpatrick
Production Company: Creeney Films
Through the relationships he cultivated with The White House and US Congress, John Hume created the framework for peace in Northern Ireland. Narrated by Liam Neeson, the documentary
includes wide-ranging interviews with US Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, UK Prime Ministers John Major and Tony Blair, as well as many US Senators, US Congressmen and Irish leaders.
Michael Inside
Michael InsideDirector: Frank Berry
Cast: Lalor Roddy, Dafhyd Flynn, Moe Dunford
Production Company: Subotica
Michael Inside tells the story of Michael McCrea, a young and impressionable teenager who is sentenced to three months in prison after being caught holding a bag of drugs for his friend’s older brother. Inside, Michael is exposed to violence and intimidation, and when he is released we see how prison has affected his thinking and his behaviour.
Outside The Factory
Outside the FactoryDirector: Feargal Ward
Production Company: FSE Films
Thomas Reid farms cattle alone in north Kildare. Threadbare clothes and tough, weathered hands reveal a life of land and toil. His next-door neighbour is the world’s largest producer of computer microchips, and rumours of expansion abound. The reclusive, quiet-spoken farmer finds himself facing impending change as his house and lands are subjected to an unprecedented Compulsory Purchase Order, threatening Thomas and his very way of life. What begins as a story of one man’s struggle to hold on to his way of life and land, transforms into a universal exploration of a battle between principle and power.
The Professor and the Madman
The Professor and the MadmanDirector: Farhad Safinia
Cast: Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Natalie Dormer
Production Company: Fastnet Films
The film tells the story of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, and sees Mel Gibson play its author Professor James Murray. Sean Penn plays William Chester Minor, a doctor, but also an inmate, at an asylum for the criminally insane, who penned more than 10,000 entries for the dictionary.
Song of Granite
Song of GraniteDirector: Pat Collins
Cast: Macdara Ó Fatharta, Mícheál Ó’Confhaola, Pól Ó Ceannabháín, Colm Seoighe
Production Company: Marcie Films
Song of Granite portrays the life of the great traditional Irish singer, Joe Heaney. The beautiful yet harsh landscape combined with the myths, fables and songs of his Connemara childhood helped shape this complex and gifted character. Enigmatic and fascinating, Heaney’s devotion to his art came at a huge personal cost to the singer and those closest to him.
Selling at EFM
Black ’47
Black ’47Director: Lance Daly
Cast: Hugo Weaving, James Frecheville, Jim Broadbent, Stephen Rea, Freddie Fox, Barry Keoghan, Moe Dunford, Sarah Greene
Production Company: Fastnet Films
An Irish soldier returns from fighting in the British army to find his family and his country devastated by the Great Famine of 1847. When he sets on a destructive path to avenge his kin, a veteran British soldier is sent to stop him before he can stoke the flames of revolution. However, personal bonds forged by the soldiers’ time fighting together cause both men to question their motives.
The Breadwinner
The BreadwinnerDirector: Nora Twomey
Cast: Saara Chaudry, Laara Sadiq, Shaista Latif, Liza Hamidi, Kawa Ada, Ali Badshah, Noorin Gulamgaus
Production Company: Cartoon Saloon
The Breadwinner is the story of Parvana, a young girl living under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, who must disguise herself as a boy to become the breadwinner of the family when her father is unfairly imprisoned. A story of self-empowerment and imagination in the face of oppression, The Breadwinner also celebrates the culture, history and beauty of Afghanistan with a cast that includes many performers of Afghan descent.
The Delinquent Season
The Delinquent SeasonDirector: Mark O’Rowe
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Andrew Scott, Eva Birthistle, Catherine Walker
Production Company: Parallel Films
Married couple Jim and Danielle witness their good friends Yvonne and Chris’ relationship growing factions. Chris is behaving erratically and when he lashes out and hits Yvonne, she realises she can’t put up with it anymore. Spending more time with her friends, Yvonne grows closer to Jim and a passionate affair leads to stronger, heartfelt emotions. However, their relationship soon deteriorates when Yvonne finds out her husband Chris is dying and, even worse, Jim knew all along. The two couples are forced to re-evaluate their lives and their respective marriages and friendships — but can anything be salvaged from the wreckage?
Elián
EliánDirectors: Ross McDonnell, Tim Golden
Production Company: Fine Point Films
On Thanksgiving Day in 1999, a Cuban boy named Elián González was found floating on an inner tube in the Florida Straits. That day set in motion a bitter custody battle between his Cuban father and Miami-based relatives that embodied and fed into simmering tensions between the US and Cuba. With unprecedented access to Elián, his family and key players in the saga, along with a wealth of unedited, raw news coverage, Elián uses one boy’s remarkable journey to plot the path to rapprochement between Cuba and the US.
Good Favour
Good FavourDirector: Rebecca Daly
Cast: Vincent Romeo, Clara Ruggard, Lars Brygmann, Victoria Mayer, Alexandre Willaume
Production Company: Savage Productions
A young man, Tom, walks out of an immense forest into the lives of a strictly devout Christian community carving out a remote existence in central Europe. They recognise that he bears the scars of trauma, and he is welcomed by them. As he is initiated into their farming life and spiritual regime, he discovers the community is suffering a crisis of faith following a devastating loss. When Tom’s actions avert a potential tragedy, the mystery surrounding him grows. Where did he come from? Has God answered the prayers of his people?
Halal Daddy
Halal DaddyDirector: Conor McDermottroe
Cast: Nikesh Patel, Sarah Bolger, Art Malik, Colm Meaney
Production Company: Deadpan Pictures
Raghdan Aziz’s new home in the west of Ireland seems to be the perfect getaway from his controlling Bradford-based Muslim father, Amir. However, when Amir lands on his doorstep with a birthday present of the keys to a former abattoir turned halal meat factory, his son has no choice but to become a reluctant entrepreneur.
Handsome Devil
Handsome DevilDirector: John Butler
Cast: Nick Galitzine, Fionn O’Shea, Moe Dunford, Andrew Scott, Jay Duffy, Michael McElhatton
Production Company: Treasure Entertainment
In Handsome Devil, two very different boys are forced to share a room together at their rugby-mad boarding school. Ned’s an effete, sensitive musician and Conor the star outhalf on the rugby team. Over the course of the school year, the boundaries between them are eroded as they become friends. Two teachers fight for the souls of the boys, rugby coach Pascal and Mr Sherry, an inspirational English teacher. Each has their own agenda.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan, Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic, Alicia Silverstone, Bill Camp
Production Company: Element Pictures
The Killing of a Sacred Deer follows a charismatic surgeon forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart when the behaviour of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.
The Lodgers
The LodgersDirector: Brian O’Malley
Cast: Charlotte Vega, Bill Milner, Eugene Simon, David Bradley, Moe Dunford
Production Company: Tailored Films
Anglo-Irish twins Rachel and Edward share a strange existence in their crumbling family estate. Each night, the property becomes the domain of a sinister presence which enforces three rules upon the twins — they must be in bed by midnight, they may not permit an outsider past the threshold and if one attempts to escape, the life of the other is forfeited. When troubled war veteran Sean returns to the nearby village, he is immediately drawn to the mysterious Rachel, who in turn begins to break the rules set out by the lodgers. The consequences pull Rachel into a deadly confrontation with her brother and with the curse that haunts them.
The Man Who Invented Christmas
Director: Bharat Nalluri
Cast: Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce, Morfydd Clark
Production Company: Parallel FilmsThe films
The film sees Charles Dickens broke and distressed after his previous three books have failed. Rejected by his publishers, he sets out to write and self-publish a book he hopes will keep his family afloat, and after six fever-pitched weeks, he creates A Christmas Carol.
Mary Shelley
Mary ShelleyDirector: Haifaa Al-Mansour
Cast: Elle Fanning, Douglas Booth, Bel Powley, Tom Sturridge, Stephen Dillane
Production Company: Parallel Films
Teenager Mary dreams of writing but has yet to find inspiration. When she meets poet Percy Shelley, it is love at first sight. But Percy has his secrets, he is married with a child. Setting up home together, Mary soon becomes pregnant with Percy’s child, a daughter who tragically dies. Ostracised by polite society and grieving for their child, they escape from London and Percy introduces Mary to Lord Byron at his house in Lake Geneva. On a stormy night, Byron suggests they all write a ghost story. Mary gives birth to Frankenstein’s Monster. It is brilliant, but women don’t write books, and publishers won’t print them. And so Mary fights for her creature and her identity, all at the age of eighteen.
MAZE
MAZEDirector: Stephen Burke
Cast: Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Barry Ward, Martin McCann
Production Company: Mammoth Films
Based on the true story of the 1983 mass breakout of 38 IRA prisoners from the HMP Maze high-security prison. As Larry Marley, the chief architect of the escape schemes his way towards this feat, he meets prison warder, Gordon Close. Initially, they are firm enemies, born on opposite sides of Northern Ireland’s political divide, but when Larry realises that Gordon may be useful for his escape plan, a slow seduction begins. What follows is a tense and intriguing drama during which an unlikely relationship is forged between two adversaries.
Moon Dogs
Moon DogsDirector: Philip John
Cast: Jack Parry Jones, Christy O’Donnell, Tara Lee
Production Company: Ripple World Pictures
A coming-of-age road trip story that follows Michael and his step-brother Thor on an epic road trip south from Scotland, meeting Irish free spirit Caitlin along the way, whose charms lead to them both falling in love with her.
Muse
MuseDirector: Jaume Balagueró
Cast: Elliot Cowan, Ana Ularu, Franka Potente, Christopher Lloyd, Manuela Vellés
Production Company: Fantastic Films
Samuel Salomon, a literature professor, has been off work for almost a year after the tragic death of his girlfriend. He has been suffering from a recurring nightmare in which a woman is brutally murdered by a strange ritual. Suddenly, the woman who appears every night in his dreams is found dead in exactly the same circumstances. Samuel sneaks into the crime scene where he meets Rachel who has also dreamed about the murder. Together, they will do whatever they can to discover the identity of the mystery woman, entering a terrifying world controlled by the figures who have inspired artists throughout time: The Muses.
The Third Wave
The Third WaveDirector: David Freyne
Cast: Ellen Page, Sam Keeley, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Paula Malcolmson
Production Company: Tilted Pictures
For six years, Europe was plagued by a devastating virus that transformed humans into zombie-like monsters. As mankind struggled to control the pandemic, the great hope of a cure was found. Now, an unforeseen enemy surfaces in its wake: the past. The cured are haunted with the memories of their actions while infected. As some try to readjust to a world that still fears them, the growing unrest threatens to plunge the world back into chaos.
Unless
UnlessDirector: Alan Gilsenan
Cast: Catherine Keener, Hannah Gross, Brendan Coyle, Matt Craven, Chloe Rose, Hanna Schygulla, Martha Henry, Linda Kash, Yanna McIntosh, Kathryn Greenwood
Production Company: SuboticaBased on the award-winning and final novel from Canadian author Carol Shields,
Based on the award-winning and final novel from Canadian author Carol Shields, Unless follows a successful writer struggling to come to terms with her daughter’s decision to withdraw from the world and start panhandling on a street corner.
The Young Offenders
The Young OffendersDirector: Peter Foott
Cast: Hilary Rose, Chris Walley, Alex Murphy, Ciaran Bermingham
Production Company: Vico Films
Inspired by Ireland’s biggest cocaine seizure of €440 million off the coast of Cork in 2007, the laugh-out-loud comedy follows two Cork inner-city teenagers, Conor and Jock, as they embark on a 160km road trip on stolen bikes in the hopes of finding an unrecovered bale of cocaine.