Legendary Irish reporter Charlie Bird is determined to break one final story before his life is cut short by Motor Neurone Disease. His sources have given him an extraordinary true crime story, one that had remained secret for decades – the attempt by a criminal gang to extort millions from the Irish government. Though the disease has already taken Charlie’s voice, a voice-app on his iPad allows him to conduct interviews, and he continues to chase the story even as his strength falters. Ransom ’79 reconstructs a scarcely-believable sequence of events that led from farce to tragedy. It also reveals how one man can find respite in doing the thing he loves, even as he faces his own mortality.

The opening night screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Colm Quinn hosted by filmmaker and journalist Sinéad O’Shea.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn