Irish Film Institute -International Film Directory – Film Listing

Adam and Paul

    • Director

      Lenny Abrahamson

    • Credits

      Producer: Johnny Speers. Writer: Mark O'Halloran

    • Principal Cast

      Mark O'Halloran, Tom Murphy

  • Category

    Feature
    Classic

Abrahamson’s first feature and his first collaboration with actor/writer Mark O’Halloran grew from an idea concerning the lives of the inner-city junkies that O’Halloran passed daily on the streets of Dublin. Eschewing a socially realist approach to their material, director and writer spent a long period developing their screenplay into something far more complex and subtle than Loach on the Liffey and, in the process, moulded a new approach to Irish cinema. Adam & Paul is a unique hybrid of European influences and Dublin sensibilities shot through with an absurdist and often comic vision in the service of a deeply sensitive portrait of drug addiction. Central to its success is the assured consistency of its tone, but all of its elements – script, music, camera work, use of locations and the utterly convincing central performances of O’Halloran and the late, wonderful Tom Murphy – make it not only an astonishing debut, but a film to view and review.

Notes by Tony Tracy.

Awards:
Best Director Award at the 2nd Irish Film and Television Awards 2004.
Audience Award for Best First Feature at the 16th Galway Film Fleadh 2004.

83 minutes, Ireland, 2004, Colour

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