Enda Murray loves Irish films, so much so he decided to become a director. But when he got to Australia to shoot a doco about Gaelic football Down Under, he forgot to go home. Their loss is our gain, but he’s never forgotten where he comes from. For seven years now, he’s brought the Irish Film Festival to his new home. And for the second year running it’s gone totally online, including seven Australian premieres and also Q&A sessions run by festival director Murray with the cast and crew of some of the highlights.
The inimitable Gabriel Byrne (War of the Worlds, The Unusual Suspects) radiates the charisma that has lit up his career in this shaggy dog tale of a man facing mortality and the mess he’s made of family life along the way in Death of a Ladies’ Man. Featuring some incredible fantastical sequences, the film is also set to the songs of Leonard Cohen and also features Mad Men star Jessica Paré. Cathy Brady won Best Director at the Irish equivalent of the Golden Globes for her feature debut Wildfire, which also screened at Cannes and the Toronto International Film Festival. Set on the historically fraught border with Northern Ireland, it’s a psychological drama spun from the return of a missing sister.
And there’s an Oscar contender in the mix with the lushly drawn Wolfwalkers, which should have taken home the Best Animation statuette this year for its mesmerising, magical tale of the old ways and the encroaching advance of colonialism. For an unholy laugh What We Do in the Shadows-style, you can stream horror comedy Boys from County Hell, which depicts a bunch of road workers accidentally awakening an ancient Irish vampire in rural Derry and their darkly comic fight to survive the night. And fans of The Commitments might enjoy seeing star Angeline Ball in Deadly Cuts, a working class Dublin-set black comedy that pits hairstylists as an unlikely vigilante gang when gangsters threaten their neighbourhood.
And if, like Murray, docos are your bag, try out Crock of Gold – A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan about the misadventures of the Pogues’ punk poet, with contributions from Bono and Nick Cave. Staying with the music theme, Phil Lynott: Songs For While I’m Away traces the heady rise to the top of the Thin Lizzy frontman who grew up black in 1950’s Dublin, and the heartbreak that awaited. And soccer stans will love Finding Jack Charlton, about the English footy star Irish folks claimed as their own.
Running online until September 12, single tickets are $10, or you can grab a three-pack for $28, or the lot for $99. Now that is good craic.