Poitín

After reading some of the caustic reaction to this movie from its debut in the 1970s, I had minimal expectations after ordering the DVD by mail order. But the film is actually quite good and authentic to a certain aspect of rural Irish life. Further, from a slow loping pace, it actually gets very tense and had me on the edge of my seat for the last portion of the movie. So it stands up as a thriller as well as a milestone for the Irish language.

In a house scene the radio is turned on and a Gaelic Sean-nos singer is heard in the background as the scene unfolds. The background music in a way makes the location authentic.

The song on the radio was really from North Africa. Which leads into Bob Quinns thesis that the western islands have, among other, Islamic cultural roots.

He, in a sense, proved his point by default. It took me 3 or 4 reruns to realize that it wasn't a Sean-nos song.

The next question is to explore the West to East maritime influences. From this experience a simple "with us or against us" slogan misses the point of our interconnected origins.

Generally I concur with the other review - although I would like to clarify one thing - Mick Lally and Cyril Cusack (father of the extraordinarily talented Cusack clan from Irish and British stage and screen) were in Glenroe together. Cyril died long before Bally-K was filmed.

Personally, I've never rated Niall Tobin's acting overmuch - however Donal McCann, who was sadly taken from us too soon, put in a sterling performance. Many of the actors would have been quite local to where the film was shot with the principal "big name" actors recruited from the national circuit. Some are still going - most notably in the Irish-language soap, Ros na Rún

It's not an easy film to watch, particularly the scene with the dog. It was usually turned off or switched over at that point. But Bob Quinn is a good director who produced intense thought-provoking films.

Mícheál (Cusack) is an old poitín-maker, distilling illicit spirits near his isolated cottage. His resellers, the shifty Sleamhnam (Toibín) and his dull-witted sidekick, Labhcas (McCann) lose a consignment of poitín to the police, but daringly steal it back. Having told Mícheál that the bottles were lost, they see no need to inform him of their recovery and they pocket the proceeds of the sale for themselves. The fairly simple plot unwinds towards a somewhat predictable end, but it's not unsatisfying. The initial warmth and rustic cheeriness of the opening scenes is gradually replaced by a sense of menace, incoherent anger and hatred, showing the hardship of the lives of people in the West of Ireland at the time. The dialogue is entirely in Irish (Gaelic, not Hiberno-English) and in Cusack and McCann it's a chance to see two of Ireland's finest actors in rare screen perfomances. Worth a look.

Poitin has been digitally remastered and a new 35mm print produced by Framestore in London and Windmill lane in Dublin. A music score has been composed by Bill Whelan (composer of Riverdance). Originally there was no music used in the film - apart from one brief interjection of Arabic music from a radio. The new version was premiered this Summer at the Galway Film Fleadh (12th July 2007), exactly thirty years after the film was shot in Conamara. Niall Toibin, the survivor of the trio of imported actors (Cusack & McCann were the two others), was guest of honor. In September the film is to start doing the rounds of Festivals. A DVD of the new film will be made available soon. The old version is available from the Cinegael website.