Special Feature on Tuesday 21st February

'TESTING TIME, TEDDY BOY' by Cavan Filmmaker Kevin McCann

Tuesday 21st February

The final hours have arrived for a struggling man and the bloodhound he has starved for one last race : The Ulster Drag-hunt. The two condemned, the heavens open to wash the scent of the dead fox from the race course, giving divine fortune to the underdog and his master.



"A Bleak moment in rural Ireland acted out by its people. Excellent."
Shane Connaughton, August 2005

"'Testing Time Teddy Boy' is terse, tough, and authentic. Shot in rich monochrome with a haunting soundtrack by Brendan Perry. It is well worth checking out."
Pat McCabe, August 2005

"I was struck by how well the piece was realised and by the sense of manace and rural desolation with which the director had imbued it ... the talking point at the Mid-Ulster Film Festival where it premiered."

Barry Devlin, May 2005


Winner- Commendation at 7th Samhlíocht Kerry Film Festival 2005
Winner- Audience Award at 1st Navan Film Festival 2005

Short-listed- Best Short Fiction/Animation Award for 7th BostonIrish Film

Festival 2005

Official Selection - 17th Galway International Film Fleadh 2005
Official Selection - 2nd Mid-Ulster Film Festival 2005

Currently short-listed for Jameson Short Film Award at 6th Belfast FilmFestival 2006

Further information on film and other projects is available from www.maccana.ie

WHISKEY

Tuesday 21st February


Dir: Juan-Pablo Rebella, Pablo Stroll

Uruguay / Argentina / Germany / Spain / France / USA / Japan

2004 98 minutes CLUB

Cast: Andrés Pazos, Mirella Pascual, Jorge Bolani

Following 25 Watts, their successful debut feature about the lives of twentysomethings in Montevideo, directing duo Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll turn their attention to an older generation in Whisky. Life at the sock factory is a monotonous routine for owner Jacobo Köller (Andrés Pazos), who shares a respectful - if distant - relationship with his employees, speaking for the most part only with his loyal assistant, Marta (Mirella Pascual). This lacklustre status quo is disturbed when Jacobo learns his younger brother Herman (Jorge Bolani), who feels guilty about missing their mother's funeral the year before, is arriving from Brazil for her gravestone-setting ceremony. This reunion so worries Jacobo that he asks Marta if she will pose as his wife during his brother's visit. Once Herman arrives, Jacobo is constantly on edge and he and Marta struggle to avoid giving conflicting information about their fictional history. But the three enjoy a surprisingly nice time together and soon Herman invites the "couple" on a weekend getaway that brings out unexpected elements of Marta's personality. Deriving most of its laughs from understatement rather than gags, Whisky is a very unconventional comedy reminiscent of the Kaurismäki brothers. The filmmaking is beautifully controlled and Rebella and Stoll are not afraid to set their own pace: we accompany Jacobo and Marta on three occasions as they open the factory before we learn Herman is coming to town. The performances by the leads are outstanding and the tenderness the directors have for their characters is apparent; through Marta's self-realisation, they show us it is never too late to change one's life. - Diana Sanchez, Toronto International Film Festival Both Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll were born in Montevideo, Uruguay and started to work together while studying social communication at La Universidad Católica del Uruguay. Their feature debut, 25 Watts (co-directors, 01), won multiple awards including the VPRO Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Whisky (co-directors, 04), their second feature, won the Prix du Regard Original at this year's Festival de Cannes.

“You really must see it.” - Sunday Times“A gem” - The Independent “Wryly comic” - Time Out“A terrific film...a real discover” - The Times

Winner - Best Foreign (Spanish-language) Film / Goya Awards 2005

Winner - FIPRESCI Prize, Winner - Prix du Regard Vers L’Avenir / Cannes 2004

Winner - Silver Hugo / Chicago Film Festival

Winner - Grand Prix / Tokyo International Film Festival 2004

Winner - Best Screenplay, Best Actress / Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2004

In My Father's Den

Tuesday 14th February

Dir: Brad McGann New Zealand / Ireland / UK 2004 126 minutes 16

Cast: Matthew MacFadyen, Miranda Otto, Emily Barclay, Colin Moy




Treatment and perspective, rather than subject or plot, are the winning features of In My Father's Den, the debut feature from New Zealander Brad McGann, which won the FIPRESCI prize at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival.Matthew Macfadyen portrays Paul, a veteran photojournalist, first shown returning to his isolated New Zealand hometown for the funeral of his father. It is his first visit in 15 years, and the not unexpected strains with his stay-at-home brother quickly emerge.The stage seems set for a familiar family melodrama, complete with the muted tone and painful conversations associated with the genre's more hackneyed formulas. However McGann, who adapted Maurice Gee's novel, introduces the first in a series of shifts which feel as emotionally logical as they sound merely abrupt.Soon Paul is living in a remote cottage near a hideaway his father maintained and which the son discovered in his youth. This is the den of the title, a cosy lair filled with books, a globe, a comfortable chair and wine, all of which clearly represented the wider world to both father and son.The den means the same to the film's second significant character, a 15-year-old girl named Celia (remarkably well played by Emily Barclay), one of Paul's students. When the two begin a tight friendship, which belies the 16 years between them, not surprisingly, the relationship raises local eyebrows.In a final twist that some might find too flamboyant, others in keeping with the material, the film reveals that no one knew — or remembered — the truth after all. -Henry Sheehan / © FIPRESCI 2004

Brad McGann (born New Zealand, 1964) studied at the University of Otago and the Swinburne Film and Television School in Melbourne. He directed the drama It Never Rains (96) and the documentary Come As You Are (co-director, 96) for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He also directed the award-winning short film Possum (96). In My Father’s Den (04) is his first feature.

“Original and poetic. Touchingly honest and heavily charged.” - Sunday Telegraph“Beautifully accomplished and taut as a wire.” - The Times

“One of the best films ever to have come out of New Zealand...full of clever twists.” - Sunday Express

Winner - Golden Hitchcock, Silver Hitchcock, Prix Kodak / 16th Dinard British Film FestivalWinner - Special Jury Prize / Seattle

International film Festival 2005Winner - FIPRESCI Prize / Toronto International Film Festival 2004

Only Human

Seres Queridos

Dir: Teresa De Pelegri & Dominic Harari Spain / UK / Argentina / Portugal 2004 98 minutes 15A

Cast: Norma Aleandro, Guillermo Toledo, Maria Botto, Marian Aguilera, Fernando Ramallo, Alba Molinero, Max Berliner, Mario Martin

Tuesday 7th February

A sprightly family comedy about a disastrous evening when a Jewish girl brings her Palestinian boyfriend home for the first time, Only Human combines a deftly-turned script, fine perts and a feel-good message to mostly delightful effect. TV presenter Leni (Marian Aguilera) turns up unexpectedly at her family home with university lecturer Rafi (Guillermo Toledo). They are greeted by her caring but neurotic mother Gloria (Norma Aleandro), belly dancer sister Tania (Maria Botto) and her daughter Paula (Alba Molinero), ultra-religious younger brother David (Fernando Ramallo), and rifle-wielding senile grandfather, old soldier Dudu (Max Berliner).Rafi is trying to amuse Paula with a container of frozen soup when it falls out of the window and apparently kills a passer-by who, Rafi learns to his horror, may be Leni's father on his way back from work. His anxiety about this, and the nicely-worked comedy of embarrassment it generates occupy the central reels.The ghost of Billy Wilder clearly hovers behind an agile, rapidly-paced script that is thick with farcical situations which, despite being somewhat deja vu, are dextrously helmed and played. Perfs are vibrant, especially from Argentine vet Aleandro, who's always dependable; Toledo, who solidifies his rep as one of Spanish cinema's finest young comedy thesps; and energetic Botto, who adds to the general effect of a well-oiled ensemble.The dark political background rarely intrudes on the general lightness, and the message -- that political differences should not be allowed to stand in the way of love -- may be facile, but is always worth restating.

- Variety“shades of early Almodovar.” - Empire“As amusing as Meet the Fockers...it would be a mistake to miss.” - Total Film “Engaging...raucous...really entertaining...comic and true.” - Sight and Sound

The Rocky Road To Dublin

Dir. Peter Lennon & Raoul Coutard, Ireland 1968 70 minutes CLUB

Tuesday 31st January

In the late sixties, while the Beatles were advocating a peaceful people-power approach to sudden change, a young Paris-based Irish journalist was becoming pre-occupied with an earlier, altogether different, type of revolution and one which he certainly didn't feel had turned out to be "alright". Peter Lennon, a Guardian correspondent had long been disenchanted with the Irish society that evolved after independence in 1921, believing it to have been a revolution that essentially failed to live up to its idealistic origins as it became hijacked by more reactionary forces. These elements then conspired to build a society that was, he feels, in many ways as restrictive as the one which it replaced. Lennon, who left Ireland in the late '50's, believing it to be "a country with its future in the hands of people who think in terms of the past" wished to debate this question with a wider audience. Thanks to the sponsorship of Victor Herbert, a wealthy American businessman who was swayed by Lennon's silver-tongued enthusiasm, he had enough money to make a documentary around this theme. The resulting film The Rocky Road to Dublin was the most important independent documentary to come out of Ireland in the 1960's and unsurprisingly provoked a storm of controversy from a nation that was not used to such rigorous self-examination. It also achieved huge notoriety in France when it was later shown during the student demonstrations of May 1968. The Rocky Road to Dublin was the only film that Lennon ever made. It had a short run in Dublin but it never received a provincial release. It has never been broadcast on television. RTE apparently believing it to be too contentious for domestic consumption in the 1960's, '70's or even '80's. - Vincent BrownePlus The Making of Rocky Road to Dublin, directed by Paul Duane, which does an excellent job of putting the original film into context. Coutard comes out of retirement to talk about the background to the film and its political significance. There’s some remarkable, previously unseen footage of Lennon confronting Godard and Truffaut at Cannes, plus scenes of demonstrations around the Sorbonne as revolutionary fervour peaked.