Festival Feature Films

Set in the fictional Dublin suburb of Barrytown, Bimbo is a baker who loses his job after being made redundant. Bimbo then acquires the help of his best friend, Larry, to set up a successful burger van.  Directed by Stephen Frears.  Comedy, Rated R, 100 minutes.

From the producers of Once and Sing Street, Float Like a Butterfly is a powerful and timely story of a girl’s fight for freedom and belonging. In a gender-reversal of classic film Billy Elliot, 15-year-old Frances has to fight for the right to fight back. Raised in roadside camps in rural Ireland, Frances wants to champion her people inside the boxing ring and out, like her idol Muhammad Ali. But society is determined to break her spirit and destroy her way of life. And her father, once her greatest ally, is too defeated himself to imagine any better for his daughter. But Frances was not born to be broken. In the mother of all fights, she must dig deep to find in herself the Champion her father once knew her to be.  Directed by Carmel Winters. Drama, Rated Ages 15+, 101 min.

One man’s ruthless pursuit of justice plays out against the darkest chapter of Irish history in this riveting revenge thriller. Set in Ireland during the Great Famine, this drama follows an Irish Ranger who has been fighting for the British Army abroad, as he abandons his post to reunite with his family. Despite experiencing the horrors of war, he is shocked by the famine’s destruction of his homeland and the brutalization of his people and his family. Directed by Lance Daly. Action/Drama, Rated R, 96 min.

American musicologist Alan Lomax had a dream to record and preserve the music of the world.  In 1951, he travelled to Ireland and, guided by piper Séamus Ennis, began recording and collecting traditional Irish songs and music. Released as the album “Ireland”, and credited with the folk and traditional music revivals of the 1960s and 1970s, these recordings sparked Lomax’s ambitious journey to gradually record the folk music of the world. The film features exclusive performances from contemporary artists Steve Earle, Clannad, Slow Moving Clouds, The Tulla Ceilí Band and Nell Ní Chróinín.  Directed by Declan McGrath.  Documentary, All Ages, 52 minutes.

Fraternal twin sisters Emma and Chantal are worlds apart. Emma is self- conscious, and unsure of which path to take in life – she dreams of starting a band (they have a pie-chart) with her best friend Gary, who secretly has a crush on her. Chantal, meanwhile, is beautiful, confident, and knows exactly where her life is headed. When their parents go away for the summer, their simmering sibling rivalry threatens to boil over, especially when the mysterious boy next door moves back in… Directed by Hugh O’Conor. Comedy/Romance, Rated Ages 15+, 88 min.