We are delighted to announce that the writer and director of Black 47, Lance Daly, known for films such as The Halo Effect, Kisses and The Good Doctor, will be attending this year’s Opening Night Gala.
Filmed around Ireland in Wicklow, Connemara and Kildare, it also stars Irish talent Stephen Rea, Barry Keoghan, Moe Dunford and Sarah Greene, and other big names such as Hugo Weaving, James Frecheville, Freddie Fox and Jim Broadbent.
It’s 1847 and Ireland is in the grip of the Great Famine that has ravaged the country for two long years. Feeney, a hardened Irish Ranger who has been fighting for the British Army abroad, abandons his post to return home and re-unite with his estranged family.
After fighting for the British crown in the war in Afghanistan, Martin Feeney returns to his Irish homeland as a deserter and finds his country in dire straits. Potato blight has destroyed the crops and over a million people have perished in the resulting famine. Martin’s family has also been affected: his mother is among the victims and his brother has been sentenced to death by the British occupying forces.
Martin’s plan to emigrate to the USA with his sister-in-law and her children fails, and witnessing his last remaining relatives wasting away almost robs him of the will to live. In desperation, he begins a bloody vendetta across the social and political hierarchy of Ireland. To stop this wrathful avenger, the British hire Inspector Hobson who fought with Martin in Afghanistan. Lance Daly draws on motifs from the western for his drama about a dark chapter of British colonialism in neighbouring Ireland that has rarely been told on the big screen.
You can get your tickets here!