johnnyd2

I saw this film at a sold out screening at the recent Raindance Film Festival. It is a beautiful piece of work both haunting and affecting. Samantha Morton gives an amazing performance as does Steven Mackintosh but it is newcomer Mhairi Anderson's perfectly judged performance as the waif Daisy that stays with you and keeps you guessing right up until the end. Shot in the magical but often bleak landscape of the West of Ireland this is a haunting and beautiful film that will stay with you for a long time. Another very very fine film from one of Europe's finest female directors whose individual voice and point of view is always interesting. Congratulations.

A great film made brilliant by the sheer power of acting. I have never experienced anything quite like it. We have here a film, a story, so convincingly told that something inside me wishes it were not true and that the abuse of authority that this film exposes does not still exist in the political and religious leaders of toady. The story is that of Franklin, a teacher in an Irish reformatory school who takes up the cause of the ill treated and neglected children being brutalised by Brother John, a rising star in the catholic church hierarchy, with the tacit approval of the other brothers, each labouring over their own guilty secrets. Of course the story is a harrowing one, and does not spare the viewers feelings, at times I wondered why I was putting myself through this gruelling history lesson, but than I knew, that guiding me through the film, like a guardian angel, is the consumate acting of absoutly all the cast. I knew they would see me through. Aidan Quinn and Iain Glen are magnificently convincing both giving the best perfprmances of their careers to date. The young boys are all wonderful in their roles. Their acting is pure realism, such mature performances from young teenagers are a glowing tribute to the directing of Aisling Walsh