Synopsis
Renowned documentarist Murray Grigor’s exploration of how the greatest Irish work of art to survive from the middle ages came to be made on the edge of the then known world. With cinematography by the ever innovative Seamus McGarvey (The War Zone, High Fidelity), the film ranges across Ireland, Scotland and as far abroad as Egypt in search of the origins of The Book Of Kells. Widely believed for centuries to be literally illuminated by angels, Grigor reveals the influences from the traditions of the Eastern Church that inspired the book’s medieval artists and scribes. Although we discover that Viking raids in the ninth century brought an apparent end to the epoch of great Irish art, the tradition of The Book Of Kells has continued to inspire others such as elements of James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake. Illuminating

Director, Murray Grigor
Ireland, 2000
Beta SP
58mins.