Adapted from a short story by John McGahern, teenager Eamon (Andrew Scott) spends his last summer working with his father John Doyle (Donal Donnelly), an eel fisherman in the damp Irish midlands, before his leaving cert results arrive and he can leave home. Tensions over fishing rights arise with neighbour Ben Moran (Vass Anderson), an old civil war adversary, which are further compounded when Eamon falls in love with Moran’s daughter. With unemployment looming, Eamon thinks of emigration to the US despite the fact that Moran’s conscripted son was recently killed in Korea and returned home in a coffin. Andrew Scott glows with youthful promise in his first film role alongside the ever-riveting Donal Donnelly.

Available in a sumptuous restoration created from original 35mm elements by the IFI Irish Film Archive for IFI’s Digital Restoration Project funded by Screen Ireland | Fís Éireann.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn