The 35th Galway Film Fleadh kicks off tonight at 7pm with an advanced screening of Thaddeus O'Sullivan's new film The Miracle Club.
Female friendship across generations in a community in the late 1960's in working class Dublin when the Catholic Church reigned supreme. A bus trip to Lourdes becomes more than a pilgrimage as each of the women look for answers to very different questions. Starring Laura Linney, Kathy Bates and Maggie Smith, Agnes O'Casey, Mark O'Halloran, Mark McKenna, Niall Buggy, Hazel Doupe and Stephen Rea.
This year the Fleadh has 95 feature films from 43 countries with 21 World Premieres, 6 European Premieres and 60 Irish Premieres, they will screen 102 short films, and moderate panels, events and masterclasses.
Highlights of Wednesday's programme are:
Here - Wed 12 July | 20:00 | Pálás Screen 3
Winner of Best Film (Encounters) at Berlinale, Bas Devos returns to the Fleadh with a romantic drama that asks us to stop, reflect and enjoy living in the moment. Stefan, a Romanian construction worker living in Brussels, is on the verge of moving back home. He cooks up a big pot of soup to hand out as a goodbye gift to friends and family. As he is getting ready to go, he meets a Belgian-Chinese woman who is preparing a doctorate on mosses. Her attention for the near-invisible stops him in his tracks. The film is followed by post show discussion.
The Effects of Lying - Wed 12 July | 22:30 | Pálás Screen 2
The Effects of Lying is an indie comedy that follows Naveen, a loyal husband and loving father who lives his life by the book. After finding his teenage daughter Simran secretly overeating and his wife Sangeeta in bed with his brother, decades of festering family secrets are exposed. Naveen is faced with reconciling with the core relationships that have helped him define his identity.
The cast includes Ace Bhatti (Bohemian Rhapsody, Line of Duty), Laila Rouass (Holby City, Spooks), and Lauren Patel (Everybody's Talking About Jamie), alongside Navin Chowdhry (The End of the F***ing World, Our Girl), Shaheen Khan (Bend it Like Beckham) and Mark Williams (Harry Potter).
A Passing Place - Wed 12 July | 21:00 | Pálás Screen 1
Conor King, in his feature debut, brings us across the landscape of Achill Island as we watch Lucy and Sam struggle with the environment they live in. Having grown up in London, Lucy is only just adapting to life with estranged family in the Irish countryside when a mysterious object appears in the sky. The possibility of first contact sparks a new sense of motivation, leading her to explore the island on which she has been struggling to settle over the past few months. Lucy's plans soon clash with her father's overprotective reaction and her brother's apparent disconnection to the appearance of the object, which has coincided with his own doubts as to whether this small, remote island is really the best home for either of them.
All three films are followed by a post show discussion. To book tickets, click here.
