From podcasts to in depth discussion and reviews, from docs to dramas, in this article, we take a look back at the Irish films that were released in 2022.
Nocebo
(DIR: Lorcan Finnegan • WRI: Garret Shanley)
Premiered at BeyondFest 2022. In cinemas 9th December 2022.
A fashion designer is suffering from a mysterious illness that puzzles her doctors and frustrates her husband. Help arrives in the form of Diana, a Filipino carer who uses traditional folk healing to reveal a horrifying truth.
CAST: Eva Green, Mark Strong
North Circular
(WRI/DIR: Luke McManus)
Premiere at Dublin International Film Festival 2022. In cinemas 2nd December 2022.
North Circular is an award-winning documentary musical, travelling the length of Dublin’s fabled North Circular Road, from the Phoenix Park to Dublin Port, meeting characters and hearing their personal stories, often told in music and song. The film celebrates the vibrant cultural heritage of the various neighbourhoods the road connects, along with the addressing the challenges of living along the famed road.
Million Dollar Pigeons
(DIR: Gavin Fitzgerald)
Premiered at Hot Docs 2022. In cinemas 25th November 2022
This Irish documentary is about the passionate and ferociously competitive international pigeon masters, known as fanciers, that will do whatever it takes to win. Big bucks, sweat, tears and sleepless nights are invested into these feathered athletes, yet on race day all they can do is wait, hope and pray.
Aisling Trí Néallaibh: Clouded Reveries
(DIR: Doireann Ní Ghríofa)
In cinemas 11th November 2022.
An intimate exploration of Ní Ghríofa’s world and creative process. It is a film about memories, motherhood and the mysterious nature of creativity. Captured through intimate performances of her own work and in-depth interviews, the film reveals Ní Ghríofa’s creative impulses and journeys with her to the heart of her inspiration, her home place in Co. Clare.
The Peculiar Sense of Being Pat Ingoldsby
(DIR: Seamus Murphy)
Premiere at Dublin International Film Festival 2022. In cinemas 4th November 2022
The film examines Irish writer Pat Ingoldsby’s unique world. Ingoldsby’s poems and candid anecdotes bear witness to a visceral relationship with his beloved Dublin, fellow Dubliners and anything that catches his interest. Personal challenges, a sensitive humanity and a lifetime as a maverick have taught him to harness reality and reach well beyond it to avenge the banal with absurd magic. It heals him as it does us.
Lyra
(DIR: Alison Millar)
Premiere at Belfast Film Festival 2021. In cinemas 4th November 2022.
Raised in working-class, war-torn Belfast Lyra went on to highlight the consequences of the Troubles, seeking justice for crimes that had been forgotten since the Good Friday Agreement. Her murder by dissident Republicans the day before Good Friday in 2019 sent shockwaves across the world.
Holy Island
(DIR: Robert Manson)
Premiere at Cork International Film Festival. In cinemas 14th October 2022.
A story about two lost souls, Rosa and David, trapped in purgatory in the form of a run-down port town. They meet awaiting a boat to leave the island, both longing to return home. Together they are forced to traverse an abnormal maze, piecing together their past lives through shared conversations and memories. In the end, only one of them can be saved. The other must fall.
Nothing Compares
(DIR: Kathryn Ferguson)
Premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2022. In cinemas 7th October 2022
Charts Sinéad OʼConnorʼs phenomenal rise to worldwide fame, and examines how she used her voice at the height of her stardom before her iconoclastic personality led to her exile from the pop mainstream. Focusing on Sinéad’s prophetic words and deeds from 1987 to 1993, the film presents an authored, richly cinematic portrait of this fearless trailblazer through a contemporary feminist lens.
Vicky
(DIR: Sasha King)
Premiered at DIFF 2022. In cinemas 7th October 2022.
In 2018 on the steps of The High Court, Vicky Phelan gave a now-infamous address where she exposed one of the worst women’s health scandals in Irish history, the cervical cancer debacle. VICKY is a profound and intimate journey into not only Vicky’s fight to expose the truth of what happened for all women but also her own personal fight to stay alive.
“an inspiring piece of work, where you will not leave dry eyed” – Saskia Steinberg
Pure Grit
(DIR: Kim Bartley)
Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh. In cinemas 30th September 2022
Three years in the life of a young Native American bareback horse racer Sharmaine, her dogged determination, and the relationships that sustain her.
Podcast with Kim Bartley
It Is In Us All
(DIR/WRI: Antonia Campbell-Hughes)
Premiered at SXSW 2022. In cinemas 23rd September 2022
A formidable man who cares for nothing is forced to confront his self-destructive core when a violent car crash involving a sexually charged boy who epitomises life, challenges him to face his truth.
CAST: Cosmo Jarvis, Rhys Mannion, Antonia Campbell Hughes, Claes Bang, Lalor Roddy
Róise & Frank
(DIR/WRI: Rachael Moriarty, Peter Murphy)
Premiered at DIFF 2022. In cinemas 16th September 2022.
In a seaside town, the recently widowed Róise struggles in the aftermath of her husband Frank’s passing two years prior. Grief-stricken, Róise has distanced herself from the world around her and those dearest to her. But when a stray dog follows her every move, a rejuvenated Róise starts to believe in the reincarnation of her husband and the power of enduring life in its next, tentative steps.
“not a dry eye in the house guaranteed at the closing credits” – June Butler
Blackbird
(DIR/WRI: Michael Flatley)
In cinemas 2nd September 2022.
Victor Blackley, an ex-MI6 operative is pulled back into the world he left when an agent connected to his past turns up to his place of business in Barbados.
CAST: Michael Flatley, Eric Roberts, Patrick Bergin, Nicole Evans, Ian Beattie
“Quite an experience” – Naemi Dehde
The Cry of Granuaile
(DIR: Dónal Foreman)
Premiered at Dublin International Film Festival. In cinemas 2nd September 2022.
A grieving American filmmaker and her Irish assistant go on a tour of the west of Ireland as they research a film about Granuaile (aka Grace O’Malley), the legendary 16th century rebel and pirate queen. The two women develop an uneasy intimacy as they journey towards the remote Clare Island, where boundaries begin to blur between past and present, myth and history, dream and reality.
CAST: Dale Dickey, Judith Roddy, Andrew Bennett, Rebecca Guinnane
Review: “captivating and haunting” – Laura Cannon
Podcast: Dónal Foreman, Director of The Cry of Granuaile
Hole in the Head
(Dean Kavanagh)
Premiered at Festival ECRÃ. In cinemas 12th August 2022.
An experimental narrative in which the protagonist re-stages his family’s home movies in order to recall a traumatic event. Part-time projectionist and amateur filmmaker, John Kline Jnr, who is mute and suffers from missing time, hires local actors Susan Moore and James Kearnes to play his parents in a series of recreated home movies to investigate their unsolved disappearance 25 years earlier.
CAST: John Curran, Lynette Callaghan, James Devereaux
Mr. Malcolm’s List
(DIR: Emma Holly Jones • WRI: Suzanne Allain)
In cinemas 26th August 2022
A young woman in 1800s England enlists the help of her friend to get revenge on a suitor who rejected her for failing a requirement of his list.
CAST: Ashley Park, Theo James, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Freida Pinto
Joyride
(DIR: Emer Reynolds • WRI: Ailbhe Keogan)
Premiere at Galway Film Fleadh 2022
In cinemas 29th July 2022
A complicated woman struggling with motherhood, who finds herself on the run with Mully, a troubled adolescent with a mum-shaped void in his life. As they tear up the road on their riotous wild journey across Ireland, we follow these roguish ‘outlaws’ in search of their dreams, in this feel-good, foul-mouthed fairy-tale.
CAST: Olivia Colman, Charlie Reid, Olwen Fouéré, Lochlann O’Mearáin
“Director Emer Reynolds, along with writer Ailbhe Keogan, have packed together a most heart-warming story in an unforgettable romp” – June Butler
Podcast with Emer Reynolds, Director of ‘Joyride’
An Cailín Ciúin
(DIR/WRI: Colm Bairéad)
Premiered at The Berlin International Film Festival 2022. In cinemas 13th May 2022.
A quiet, neglected girl is sent away from her overcrowded, dysfunctional family to live with foster parents for the summer. She blossoms in their care, but in this house where there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one painful truth.
CAST: Catherine Clinch, Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennett, Michael Patric, Kate Nic Chonaonaigh, Carolyn Bracken, Joan Sheehy
“a moving, poignant tableau that is impressive in its discourse and momentum”- June Butler
The Cellar
(Brendan Muldowney)
Premiered at SXSW 2022. In cinemas 25th March 2022
Keira Woods’ daughter mysteriously vanishes in the cellar of their new house. She soon discovers there is an ancient and powerful entity controlling their home that she will have to face or risk losing her family’s souls forever.
CAST: Elisha Cuthbert and Eoin Macken
“skillfully build[s]a feeling of dread and despair” – Laura Cannon
Young Plato
(DIR: Declan McGrath, Neasa Ní Chianáin • WRI: Etienne Essery, Declan McGrath, Neasa Ní Chianáin)
Premiered at DocNYC 2021. In cinemas 18th March 2022.
School headmaster Kevin McArevey tries to change the fortunes of an inner-city Irish community plagued by urban decay, sectarian aggression, poverty and drugs.
CAST: Kevin McAreveyJan-Marie Reel
“brings to attention the benefits of critical thinking and philosophy in schools” – Larissa Brigatti
Podcast with Declan McGrath & Neasa Ní Chianáin
Wolf
(DIR/WRI: Nathalie Biancheri)
Premiered at TIFF 2021
In cinemas 18th March 2022
Jacob, whose condition called species dysphoria makes him believe he is a wolf trapped inside a teenager’s body, hands himself to the care of a controversial clinic known as The Zoo, where extreme therapies are used. There, he forms a bond with a long-term patient named Wildcat.
CAST: George MacKay and Lily-Rose Depp
“a unique film, which expertly walks the line between comically dark and shockingly disturbing. ” –Irene Falvey
Foscadh
(DIR: Seán Breathnach)
Premiere at Galway Film Fleadh 2021. In cinemas 11th March 2022
When his over-protective parents pass away, friendless recluse John Cunliffe discovers their land to be extremely valuable, and he is forced to navigate the choppy waters of trust, vengeance and romance for the first time.
CAST: Dónall Ó Héalai, Fionnuala Flaherty, Cillian O’Gairbhi
“a raw, emotionally wrought and at times excruciating excavation of loneliness and human vulnerability. ” – Seán Crosson
Podcast with Seán Breathnach, Writer/Director of ‘Foscadh’
You Are Not My Mother
(DIR/WRI: Kate Dolan)
Premiere at TIFF 2021. In cinemas 4th March 2022.
Char’s mother, Angela, has inexplicably disappeared. All that remains is her abandoned car. When she returns home without explanation the following evening, it becomes clear to Char and her grandmother, Rita, that something is amiss. She might look and sound the same but Angela’s behaviour has become increasingly frightening, as if she has been replaced by a malevolent force. As Halloween night looms, a night steeped in ancient myth and legend, Char realizes that she is the only one who can save her, even if it means potentially losing her forever.
CAST: Carolyn Bracken, Paul Reid, Ingrid Craigie, Jordanne Jones, Hazel Doupe
“skilfully weaves together the threats of familial dysfunction and Irish folk horror into a beautiful patchwork quilt of horror” –Naemi Dehde
Podcast with Kate Dolan, Writer/Director of You Are Not My Mother
Let the Wrong One In
(DIR/WRI: Conor McMahon)
Premiered at Fantastic Fest in September 2021.
Matt discovers his brother Deco has become the latest victim of a group of vampires wreaking havoc in Dublin.
CAST: Eoin Duffy, Karl Rice, Anthony Head, Mary Murray, Hilda Fay, David Pearse
“a playful nod-and-wink to the classics of the genre resulting in an entertaining romp of ridiculous gore, Irish jokes and practical effects.” – Aoife Fealy
The Dance
(DIR: Pat Collins)
Premiered at BFI London Film Festival 2021. In cinemas 11th February 2022
Follows the staging of a new international dance and theatre work (MÁM) by the acclaimed choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan from the first day of rehearsal to the opening night performance.
“an engaging, inspiring exploration of the creative process unleashed and given the freedom to blossom into a special collaboration” – Loretta Goff
Doineann
(DIR: Damian McCann• WRI: Aislinn Clarke)
Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2021. In cinemas 28th January 2022
The story of the disappearance of a woman and her baby on a remote Irish island. Her husband must put his trust in the island’s retired policewoman to help find his family before a storm hits the island.
CAST: Peter Coonan, Bríd Brennan, Clare Monnelly, Sean T. O’Meallaigh
‘hard to take your eyes off’ – Stephen Burke
Podcast with Director Damian McCann & Writer Aislinn Clarke of ‘Doineann’
TBA
The Ghost of Richard Harris
(DIR: Adrian Sibley)
Premiered at Venice Film Festival August 2022.
The story of a legendary Irishman, one of Ireland’s greatest Hollywood stars.
Pray For Our Sinners (DIR: Sinead O’Shea)
Premiered at TIFF
Confronts Ireland’s recent history of brutality against children and women ranging from corporal punishment to state-sanctioned mother and baby homes.
Nothing Compares
(DIR: Kathryn Ferguson)
Premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2022
Charts Sinéad OʼConnorʼs phenomenal rise to worldwide fame, and examines how she used her voice at the height of her stardom before her iconoclastic personality led to her exile from the pop mainstream. Focusing on Sinéad’s prophetic words and deeds from 1987 to 1993, the film presents an authored, richly cinematic portrait of this fearless trailblazer through a contemporary feminist lens.
Lakelands
(DIR/WRI: Robert Higgins and Patrick McGivney)
Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh in July 2022.
Cian is a young Gaelic footballer struggling to comes to terms with a career-ending injury after an attack on a night out. He undertakes a search for his own identity in a small town where Gaelic football is a religion, and identity is defined by what you can do on the pitch.
CAST: Éanna Hardwicke, Danielle Galligan, Lorcan Cranitch
“It’s the performances of Éanna Hardwicke and Danielle Galligan that linger most in the memory”-Stephen Burke
Apocalypse Clown
(DIR: George Kane • WRI: Shane O’Brien, James Walmsley and Demian Fox)
A troupe of failed clowns and an ambitious reporter embark on a chaotic adventure of self-discovery after a mysterious solar event plunges the world into anarchy.
Cast: David Earl, Natalie Palamides, Amy De Bhrún, Fionn Foley, Tadhg Murphy, Ivan Kaye
The Wonder
(DIR: Sebastián Lelio • WRI: Alice Birch, Sebastián Lelio)
Set in The Irish Midlands in 1862, the story follows a young girl who stops eating but remains miraculously alive and well. English nurse Lib Wright is brought to a tiny village to observe eleven-year old Anna O’Donnell. Tourists and pilgrims mass to witness the girl who is said to have survived without food for months. Is the village harbouring a saint ‘surviving on manna from heaven’ or are there more ominous motives at work?
CAST: Florence Pugh,Ciarán Hinds, Niamh Algar
God’s Creatures
(DIR: Saela Davis, Anna Rose Holmer • WRI: Shane Crowley)
Premiered at Cannes Film Festival in May 2022
In a windswept fishing village in Kerry, a mother is torn between protecting her beloved son and her own sense of right and wrong. A lie she tells for him rips apart their family and close-knit community in this tense, sweepingly emotional epic.
CAST; Emily Watson, Paul Mescal, Aisling Franciosi
Shame//Less
(DIR: Stephen Quinn, Noel Donnellon, Luke Faulkner • WRI: Stephen Quinn, Thomas Strong)
Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh in July 2022
Shot in Dublin’s iconic Boilerhouse sauna, Shame//Less transports the viewer on a kaleidoscopic cruise through Dublin’s queer underbelly. The film invites you to peer through the glory hole of post-marriage equality Dublin and see if you like it like that. Does that feel good? How about there? Careful now, you might even enjoy it.
CAST: Stephen Quinn, Kiara Gannon, Luis Nogera, Pradeep Mahadeshwar, Niall Keane, Vickey Curtis, Day Magee, Andrew Deering, Meg Woods, Karl Hayden
Bicycle Thieves: Pumped Up
(DIR/WRI: Conor O’Toole)
Premiere at Galway Film Fleadh 2021
Mags, a pizza delivery cyclist with anger issues, has her bike stolen, and resolves to hunt down the thief and get her bike back. Hopefully before she gets evicted. A magical realist action comedy set in modern Dublin.
CAST: Roxanna Nic Liam, Donnacha O’Brien, Dave Emery
“O’Toole’s first feature film hits the mark with its energy, creativity, and punchiness” – Loretta Goff
Aisha
(DIR/WRI: Frank Berry)
Premiered at Cannes Film Festival 2022. Available to stream now.
Caught in limbo for years in Ireland’s immigration system, Aisha Osagie develops a friendship with former prisoner Conor Healy who she meets at one of the accommodation centres. Aisha and Conor’s growing friendship soon looks to be short lived as Aisha’s future in Ireland comes under threat.
CAST: Letitia Wright, Josh O’Connor
L.O.L.A.
(DIR: Andrew Legge • WRI: Andrew Legge, Angeli Macfarlane)
Premiered at Locarno International Film Festival
2 sisters in 1940 build a machine that can intercept broadcasts from the future.
CAST: Emma Appleton and Stefanie Martini
The Ghosts of Baggotonia
(Alan Gilsenan)
Premiered at DIFF 2022.
An evocative film-poem exploring the literary and other ghosts of the bohemian quarter bordering Dublin’s Baggot Street during the mid-20th century. “Baggotonia” was both an area and a cultural movement, populated by writers, artists and other intellectuals living an anarchic life at odds with the conservative mores of the time.
How to Tell a Secret (DIR: Anna Rodgers, Shaun Dunne)
Premiere at DIFF 2022
An intimate exploration of HIV disclosure in Ireland. A portrait of a community at a pivotal point of change, the film examines the relationship between advocacy and art, stigma and secrecy.
“Blending elements of theatre into the film, Dunne and Rodgers create a poetic tale of rebirth.” – Meghan Mickela
North Circular
(DIR: Luke McManus)
Premiere at DIFF 2022
Travels the length of the eponymous road exploring the history, music and streetscapes of this legendary artery that links some of Dublin’s most beloved and infamous places. From the Phoenix Park to Dublin Port this documentary evokes many narratives from the history of the nation to the urgent issues of today including the battle to save the legendary Cobblestone Pub.
Mr. Malcolm’s List
(DIR: Emma Holly Jones • WRI: Suzanne Allain)
A young woman in 1800s England enlists the help of her friend to get revenge on a suitor who rejected her for failing a requirement of his list.
CAST: Ashley Park, Theo James, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Freida Pinto
Ballywalter
(DIR: Prasanna Puwanarajah • WRI: Stacey Gregg)
Eileen makes ends meet by working as an unlicensed driver in her ex-boyfriend’s minicab. When Shane calls a taxi to get him to his classes, Eileen answers and a surprising connection is made.
CAST: Seána Kerslake, Patrick Kielty
Vicky
(DIR: Sasha King)
Premiered at DIFFin February 2022.
In 2018 on the steps of The High Court, Vicky Phelan gave a now-infamous address where she exposed one of the worst women’s health scandals in Irish history, the cervical cancer debacle. Vicky is an exclusive and intimate journey into not only her fight to expose the truth of what happened for all women but also her own personal fight to stay alive.
“To merely class this as a documentary would be myopic. This is a wake-up call, not just for the healthcare industry but for society as a whole.” – Saskia Steinberg
Nightride
(DIR: Stephen Fingleton)
Premiered at DIFF in February 2022
A drug dealer attempts to go straight – by pulling off one last big job.
CAST: Moe Dunford, Joana Ribeiro, Gerard Jordan
“fires enough shots and packs some powerful punches across its tightly focused runtime to raise pulses and heart rates.” – Stephen Connolly
Dark Horse on the Wind
(DIR: Myles O’Reilly)
Premiered at DIFF in 2022.
A look back at the life and songs of the late Traditional Ballad Singer Liam Weldon. A strong advocate for aural tradition and notoriously wary of self promotion, he left little behind in the way of recordings but his legacy is more alive today than ever, flourishing in a new generation of folk singers.
Continuing Traditions
(DIR: Donal O’Ceilleachair)
Premiered at DIFF in February 2022
The musical cultures of Ireland and India meet – through the work of two of their greatest proponents – in Donal O’Ceilleachair’s documentary. Acclaimed Indian classical musician and composer Ustad Wajahat Khan and much-loved and renowned Irish musician and composer Peadar Ó Riada join forces in a musical meeting of East and West. In so doing, they reveal the shared musical heritage, cultural history and influences of their beloved native traditions.
The Peculiar Sensation of Being Pat Ingoldsby
(DIR: Seamus Murphy)
Premiered at DIFF in February 2022
Ingoldsby’s poems and candid anecdotes bear witness to a visceral relationship with his beloved Dublin, fellow Dubliners and anything that catches his interest. Personal challenges, a sensitive humanity and a lifetime as a maverick have taught him to harness reality and reach well beyond it to avenge the banal with absurd magic. It heals him as it does us.
1 Comment
Hi sorry to bother,my names Jack and I’m just contacting you’s I’m really interested in doing some work for your magazine. I already write reviews for a few local magazines,that you can see on my website but I’m looking to do more as I’m obsessed with cinema. The reviews I do I don’t get paid for and I wouldn’t be expected to get any sort of payment from you’s either,just looking to work within film anyway I can and build up experience and a portfolio. Thanks hope to hear from you soon.