Irish Film Institute -International Film Directory – Film Listing

Float Like a Butterfly

    • Director

      Carmel Winters

    • Credits

      Producers:
      Martina Niland
      David Collins

      Writer:
      Carmel Winters

    • Principal Cast

      Hazel Doupe
      Dara Devaney
      Johnny Collins
      Aidan O'Hara
      Lalor Roddy
      Hilda Fay

  • Category

    Feature
    F-Rated

In rural Ireland in the 1960s, Frances (Hazel Doupe) is a young Traveller who has coped with tragedy from an early age. When her father Michael (Dara Devaney) is imprisoned, Frances learns to fend for herself and her brother, developing a love of boxing and a devotion to Muhammad Ali inherited from her father. Their peaceful life in the camp on the picturesque West Cork coast is disrupted when Michael returns from prison, gathers his children and takes to the road.

Against a portrait of Traveller culture that is both nostalgic in its campfire singalongs, tinsmiths and barrel-topped caravans and grim in its depiction of an alcohol-fuelled violent patriarchy, director Carmel Winters celebrates the tenacity of a young woman determined to break with tradition and forge her own destiny.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn

Awards:
Best Feature Film Script, Zebbies, 2018
Audience Award for Best Film, Cork International Film Festival, 2018
FIPRESCI Discovery Prize, Toronto International Film Festival, 2018

100 minutes, Ireland, 2018, Colour

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