Irish Film Institute -International Film Directory – Film Listing

Parked

    • Director

      Darragh Byrne

    • Credits

      Producers: Dominic Wright, Jacquelin Kerrin. Writer: Ciaran Creagh

    • Principal Cast

      Colm Meaney, Colin Morgan, Milka Ahlroth, Stuart Graham

  • Category

    Feature

Often identified as the indomitable father-figure in The Barrytown Trilogy, Colm Meaney is here the much less resilient Fred Daly who, having returned to Dublin after years abroad is, for reasons that go largely unexplained, living in his permanently parked car over-looking Dublin Bay. This welcome ambiguity and restraint is apparent throughout, as in the portrayal of Finnish piano teacher Jules (Milka Ahlroth), a widow who Fred meets on a jaunt to the swimming pool with fellow car-park dweller Cathal O’Reagan (Colin Morgan), a convivial but troubled 21 year old with an escalating drug problem.

Dealing with highly charged issues of homelessness, grief and heroin addiction, Parked offers a refreshing focus on character rather than type, developing the relationships between its protagonists with compassion and humour. Elegantly shot in widescreen during the coldest January in Ireland in twenty-five years, Dublin's coast and docklands look positively icy in this atmospheric and socially-relevant feature debut from director Darragh Byrne.

Notes by Alice Butler.
 
Awards:
Best First Feature Award at the 22nd Galway Film Fleadh 2010.

94 minutes, Ireland/Finland, 2010, Colour

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