Martin Sheen plays Charlie Tynan, an Irish playwright living in New York who is summoned home with a phone call from Ireland telling him his father (Barnard Hughes) has died. After the funeral he finds his efforts to grieve are thwarted by his curmudgeonly old father who appears to Charlie and forces him to reexamine their relationship through a series of embarrassing, humiliating, and upsetting moments from his youth and early manhood.

Adapted by Hugh Leonard himself from his enormously successful play of the same name and his book Home Before Night, Da draws on Leonard’s best and most personal work as source material.

With great comedy in their fraught exchanges; sincere and credible performances from Hughes and Sheen; recognisable locations in Dalkey and Coliemore Harbour, this rarely-screened film is an absolute delight.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn