The film’s award-winning Sound Designer, Robert Flanagan, will participate in a post-screening Q&A.

 Another first for Fastnet: an Irish-Slovenian co-production, and one entirely devoid of dialogue at that. Make no mistake however, Janez Burger’s film is no throwback to the silent era à la The Artist. This is a portrait of an unnamed Balkan land plagued by war, including a family living in a desolate rural war zone, their mother murdered – mere collateral damage in the ongoing turmoil. One night, they’re paid a visit by a mysterious convoy: anticipating conflict, they instead find a travelling circus troupe, which proceeds to set up camp. It’s magic time. Circus as metaphor for the absurdity of war is a hoary old chestnut, but this surreal romp – an ode to the transcendence of entertainment – pulls off the seemingly impossible, making it fresh all over again.

Plus The Chronoscope (20 mins, Ireland, 2009, Colour/Black and White): a brilliant, Zelig-esque ‘mockumentary’ from writer-director Andrew Legge, detailing the rise and fall of 20th-century Ireland’s greatest female inventor.