New independent Irish films wow critics

By

Cahir O'Doherty,

Irish America Magazine

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Zonad, the alien visitor from another world, startles the Cassidy family.

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Three remarkable new Irish films wowed festival goers at the Tribeca Film Festival this spring. Independently made on shoestring budgets but featuring remarkable performances by both newcomers and Hollywood heavy hitters, each of the three films shared something in common: their unmistakable commitment to Irish writing, Irish acting talent and even the Irish landscape. The first of the three films to make its debut at the festival was Zonad, the genre-busting laugh-out-loud comedy by John Carney (director of the recent Irish Oscar winner Once). Starring newcomer Simon Delaney in a breakout role, Zonad is part Carry-On comedy, part 1950’s Sci-Fi potboiler, and part hearty revenge on America for decades of overly sentimental Irish nonsense like The Quiet Man and Darby O’Gill.

Part of the fun of Zonad is that you have literally never seen anything quite like it from Ireland before. When the title character (played by Delaney) arrives in the little village of Ballymoran (looking like Britney Spears’s overweight dad in a red jumpsuit), he’s instantly accepted by the overly friendly locals. Somehow they never get around to asking the so-called spaceman difficult questions like “where’s your spaceship?” or “how come you speak English?” Instead they excitedly welcome him to their community the way they’d welcome anyone, with a stone-cold pint of Guinness.

After the international success of Once, Carney had the perfect excuse to pursue a small-budget film without controversy and he took a chance on this labor of love. Zonad is, to put it mildly, as nutty as a fruitcake but it has cult hit written all over it. It’s also introduced Simon Delaney to the U.S. public (he picked up a new agent and a representative at the Tribeca Festival), a fact we should all be grateful for.

Next in line is a new Irish drama that looks unlike anything that’s come out of Ireland before. My Brothers, written by Irish screenwriter Will Collins, 33, and directed by British man Paul Fraser, 37, is an immensely powerful story about three young working-class Cork brothers who take an impromptu road trip together to pick up a new watch for their dying father.

As metaphors go, that may sound like a gauche one, but the performances by the young Irish cast and the assured cinema verité direction lift this film far above its occasional contrivances to turn it into something deeply affecting. My Brothers eventually hits you with the cumulative force of an avalanche.

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