Gilsenan’s breakthrough and controversial state-of-the-nation film essay, was, and still is, a provocative, iconoclastic portrait of Irish youth in the 1980s, a time of unemployment, emigration and political crisis. The Road… offered voice to a broad sweep of angry, disillusioned young people in Ireland and in their newly adopted homelands, and captured the spirit of the time in its chaotic ensemble of testimony, stark visual imagery and arresting music track featuring U2, Aslan, and The Pogues.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn

Screening as part of the Alan Gilsenan Restrospective