Irish Film Institute -International Film Directory – Film Listing

Smolt

    • Director

      Michael Higgins

    • Credits

      Producer:
      Ciara Gillan

    • Principal Cast

      Adam Carolan
      Ryan Ward

  • Category

    Feature
    Experimental

‘Smolt (n.) Young salmon migrating to sea for first time.’

While trying to offload secondhand cigarettes, two 12-year-olds, Darren and Leon, become embroiled in a saga involving counterfeit football jerseys. Conceived in the style of a bootleg VHS, award-winning filmmaker Michael Higgins plunges viewers into the depths of inner-city Dublin, where the kids earn their pocket money and encounter girls, guns, drugs and disorganised crime.

Higgins crafts a film that is both highly experimental and entertaining with moments that are genuinely endearing. Unlike many films employing retrograde technologies, Smolt feels genuine and, at times, lingers on the question: are we seeing something we shouldn’t?

Notes by Dean Kavanagh

65 minutes, Ireland, 2013, Colour


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Arts Council of Ireland