Irish Film Institute -International Film Directory – Film Listing

Mammal

    • Director

      Rebecca Daly

    • Principal Cast

      Rachel Griffiths,
      Barry Keoghan,
      Michael McElhatton.

  • Category

    Feature
    F-Rated

Margaret (Rachel Griffiths) lives a determinedly quiet life in a nondescript corner of Dublin; middle-aged and divorced, she owns a second-hand store, with little social life save for solitary trips to the local swimming pool. Her self-imposed isolation ends when she receives a phone call from ex-husband Matt (Michael McElhattan) telling her the son she abandoned in infancy, now a teenager, has gone missing, news which coincides with her decision to give shelter to Joe (Barry Keoghan), a homeless boy she finds beaten up outside her house.

As Margaret’s relationship with Joe grows more intimate it becomes uncertain whether her attraction to the boy is that of a surrogate son or a potential lover. The second feature form Rebecca Daly (The Other Side of Sleep), Mammal is a tightly focused exploration of the troubling bond formed between two damaged people.

Notes by David O'Mahony

96 minutes, Ireland / Netherlands / Luxembourg, 2016, Colour

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