Irish Film Institute -International Film Directory

The Butcher Boy

Neil Jordan, 110 minutes, 1997

Neil Jordan's twisted version of a coming of age story, The Butcher Boy brings the viewer into the bizarre world of Francie Brady (Eamonn Owens). With an alcoholic father (Stephen Rea) and suicidal mother (Aisling O’Sullivan) at home, Francie lives…

Circle of Friends

Pat O'Connor, 103 minutes, 1995

Set in an austere 1950s Ireland, Circle of Friends is the empowering story of three young women fighting to have decent lives in a difficult country. Childhood friends Bernadette (Minnie Driver), Nan (Saffron Burrows), and Eve (Geraldine O’Rawe), escape the…

Clouded Reveries

Ciara Nic Chormaic, 72 minutes, 2022

Clouded Reveries concerns the life and work of poet and essayist Doireann Ní Ghríofa. Ní Ghríofa was catapulted into the international literary spotlight in 2020 with the publication of her debut novel A Ghost in the Throat. Lauded by the…

The Colleen Bawn

Sidney Olcott, 42 minutes, 1911

The Colleen Bawn is indicative of Kalem’s aspiration to aim its Irish subjects beyond an Irish-American audience and is highly ambitious in its conception. Like Rory O’More, the film is based on a 19th century literary source. Dion Boucicault’s 1860…

The Commitments

Alan Parker, 118 minutes, 1991

Voted the best Irish film ever made in a poll sponsored by Jameson Whiskey in 2005, The Commitment’s charts the unlikely journey of Dublin soul band ‘The Commitments’. Ambitious Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) takes control of his friend’s struggling wedding…

Dancing at Lughnasa

Pat O'Connor , 95 minutes, 1998

Brian Friel’s enormously popular play about life in 1930s Ireland, the winner of a host of awards when first produced, is here transformed by director Pat O’Connor into a richly textured feature film. At its heart is a family of…

December Bride

Thaddeus O'Sullivan, 88 minutes, 1991

A compelling story of an open conflict between freedom and tradition, director Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s film sees a nineteenth century Protestant community scandalised by the actions of the fiercely independent Sarah Gomartin (Saskia Reeves). In opposition to convention, Sarah enters into…

Disco Pigs

Kirsten Sheridan, 93 minutes, 2001

Imaginative, shocking, and wholly unlike any coming-of-age narrative Ireland had seen before, Disco Pigs is the story of two teenagers whose lifelong partnership suffers an almost Edenic fall from grace. Runt (Elaine Cassidy) and Pig (Cillian Murphy), known to their…

Dreamtime Revisited

Julius Ziz, Dónal Ó Céillachair, 76 minutes, 2012

A poet and philosopher inspired by Irish mythology and landscape, the writings of the late John Moriarty are here transformed into an impressionistic exploration of the wonder Moriarty found in the world. Interviews with members of Moriarty’s surviving family offer…

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