Pavee Lackeen: The Traveller Girl

A slice of life can be great cinema, because it can capture something that seems intrinsically real and tangible. Pavee Lackeen is funny and strikes me as realistic.

The film does not need an insertion of dramatic structure because I think it would then become contrived and false. The structure of the film is loose, but this definitely works. The focus isn't compromised, and as an audience we are compelled not by manufactured structure but by the rawness and reality of 'The Traveller Girl's' life (shaky, unsteady, boring, sad). Winnie and her family shine, a cracker of a film.

I found the film interesting, but a one sided insight into the life of Irish travellers. It seemed to tick the stereotypical view that a lot of people who are not informed about travellers would think. Poor, dirty, ill-educated, drunk, thieves.

In reality travellers are like any other race there are the rich and the poor the good and the bad. This film seemed to be a one sided view.

At the screening Perry Ogden said that the young girl Winnie asked him to take out the petrol sniffing scene and he had convinced her and her mother to keep it in. Winnie had been worried that the scene would portray her as a bad person and that no one would want to marry her. For a 10 year old girl to speak out to a director I think was very brave and he manipulated her to keep the scene in for his own "artistic licence".

Also the father figure in the film is not around, the opening scene sees the mother collecting money from a pawned wedding ring. perry Ogden said he left this open to interpretation that perhaps the father was dead or had "gone off". In traveller culture the fathers/husbands do not just "go off" (the reality was that the father did not want to be in the film) as there are extremely high values placed on family.

Overall the film was interesting but it concerns me that the film was quite negative about travellers in Ireland and that the director changed aspects of reality to add more drama to the film which was supposed to be a realistic insight.

A documentary-style snapshot of the life of a Traveller family in the docks area of Dublin. (Travellers are the Irish equivalent of Roma gypsies, but those two groups have entirely different histories.) A resilient mother and her ten children occupy trailers, or caravans as the Brits call them, on land owned by the local council. The film primarily follows Winnie, a ten year daughter, but the mother also plays an important role as she fights eviction notices and tries to improve the live of her children. Issues of discrimination, difficulties with the authorities and a social security net that, while well intentioned, can do little for the family are topics that permeate the film. Members of the family and their neighbors play themselves, while actors take up non-Traveller roles. The director should be commended for integrating professionals and non-professionals into a seamless whole.

I was delighted to have the opportunity to see Pavee Lackeen at Soho and take part in the Q&A session with Perry Ogden afterwards. Even though I can appreciate the artistic aspect of the film and Perry Ogden's intention to highlight certain aspects of lifestyle problems, i.e, housing and education, I cannot understand what he is alluding to when he says that he wants to 'challenge people's perceptions'. Far from challenge, I think Perry has managed to confirm some people's entrenched and negative views of the travelling population. What aspects of the film celebrated the culture? When I put some of my concerns to Perry at the Q&A, he was keen to point out to me that it was not meant to be a 'bleeding heart documentary'...(not that I inferred that, his words, not mine)...and he 'told' me that ...I had to 'understand about the culture'. O.K Perry, so not only do you think you have a license to represent the traveller community ('I understand the language, it's my language now'), you obviously feel you can talk for others. As a professional involved in children's right's, I was concerned about your lack of sensitivity to Winnie and her mother. The boundaries in the film were so blurred, viewers were confused as to what was fact for the family and what was fiction. When a vulnerable 10year old child is brave enough to speak up for herself and ask for something quite specific (Please take out the glue sniffing scene as I am worried about what people may think of me), best case scenario, Perry, it could be seen as ignorance on your part to leave it in, worst case scenario, it could be perceived as abusive. In a world where the media groom and manipulate vulnerability for the purpose of achieving artistic recognition...well done, I'd say that's a 10 out of 10.

I worried that Pavee Lakeen would fall at one of two hurdles; either do-gooder worthiness in covering the subject matter, or the hokey staged quality often associated with both 'docu-dramas' and use of non-professional actors. No need to concern yourself on either count.

The fiction/documentary thing works to the degree that you forget you're looking at something that isn't pure documentary. The professional actors don't stick out like sore thumbs, and the feel of the entire film is very naturalistic.

In avoiding the urge to moralise, and investing so much time and effort in capturing the essence of the Maughan's day-to-day life, Perry Ogden has produced a real gem of a film. He managed to produce something that takes the qualities of his social reportage photography work, and extends it naturally into cinema. For a first feature, it exhibits nothing of the excessive tinkering you sometimes find. Ogden was blessed with a photogenic lead, but he avoids leaning on the aesthetic crutch he might have done.

The film isn't big on narrative, and don't go expecting plot resolutions, or arcs, or whatever. It's a great intimate snapshot of a girl's life, a family, and (unexpectedly) a city, in this moment in time. The 'issues' that the film touches on are handled with a light touch, and all the better for it.

One warning; I don't know if the film is shown with subtitles outside Ireland, but the accent/dialect of the Travellers will challenge some.