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Director
Sinéad O'Shea
Credits
Producers: Eleanor Emptage, Clare McCabe, Sinéad O'Shea.
Cinematographer: Richard Kendrick
Writer: Sinéad O'Shea
Principal Cast
Jessie Buckley, Declan Conlon, Gabriel Byrne
Category
DocumentaryF-RatedLiterature
In 1960, a young Irish woman named Edna O’Brien wrote The Country Girls, the first of a sexually-frank trilogy of novels. Though the books were banned in Ireland, O’Brien became an international literary sensation, gaining fame and notoriety through her marriage and acrimonious divorce from Ernest Gebler; publications in the New Yorker and the creation of screenplays for British and US cinema. She lived in London with her two sons where she hosted star-studded parties and conducted numerous love affairs. Her later work was inspired, at times controversially, by real life events. This documentary portrait, completed shortly before her death last year, features extracts from her journals (read with verve by Jessie Buckley), contributions from Gabriel Byrne, Anne Enright and other luminaries, and a remarkable final interview with Edna, now aged 93 as she reflects with dignity and candour on her extraordinary life. Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn Awards: + Best Documentary, Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards 2025 + Best New Irish Feature, Cork International Film Festival 2024
100 minutes, Ireland, 2024, Colour
A QUIET LOVE 18.00
HAMNET 15.30
IT’S NEVER OVER, JEFF BUCKLEY 13.10, 20.40
JEAN-LUC GODARD: ALPHAVILLE 18.20
MY FATHER’S SHADOW 13.00
NO OTHER CHOICE 13.00
SENTIMENTAL VALUE 15.20
THE BIGGER PICTURE: BEFORE SUNRISE 20.30
THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE 15.45, 18.10 (OC)
THE SECRET AGENT 20.10
The IFI is supported by The Arts Council