Irish film highlighted in the Discovery strand at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival
Posted: 8th August 2019
Irish film is in the spotlight once again at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), as three upcoming Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland films have been selected as part of the Discovery strand at the festival. Nick Rowland’s Calm With Horses, Neasa Hardiman’s Sea Fever and Zeresenay Mehari’s Sweetness in the Belly will all receive World Premieres in September. The Discovery strand represents directors to watch and the future of world cinema.
Each of the Irish films selected highlights a series of ‘firsts’ for the creative teams involved. Sea Fever marks Neasa Hardiman’s highly anticipated directorial feature debut, while Calm With Horses, the directorial debut for Nick Rowlands, is also the inaugural production funded by the WRAP Fund. Sweetness in the Belly, co-produced by Parallel Films, fortifies Ireland’s strong co-production links with Canada, telling a global narrative with local talent.
The films join the Irish/Belgian co-production The Other Lamb, which will receive a Special Presentation in the TIFF line-up. The Other Lamb is the English-language debut of critically acclaimed and Silver Bear-winning director Małgorzata Szumowska. A haunting and nightmarish tale that tells the story of a young girl born into an alternative religion known as the Flock, it is produced by Rumble Films and Subotica Productions, in association with Zentropa and in co-production with Umedia.
Commenting on the selections, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland Chief Executive Désirée Finnegan said: “I would like to congratulate each of the filmmakers and creative teams behind Calm With Horses, Sea Fever, Sweetness in the Belly and The Other Lamb on their selection for the 44th Toronto International Film Festival. TIFF provides an incredible launch platform for these stories to connect with global audiences and to reflect the depth and diversity of Irish creative talent and storytelling on screen.”
Calm With Horses, directed by Nick Rowlands and produced by Rory Gilmartin for Element Pictures, stars Cosmo Jarvis (Lady Macbeth) and Barry Keoghan (The Killing of a Sacred Deer). In darkest rural Ireland, ex-boxer Arm has become the feared enforcer for the drug-dealing Devers family, whilst also trying to be a good father to his autistic five-year-old son, Jack. Torn between these two families, Arm is asked to kill for the first time, and his attempt to do the right thing endangers everyone he holds dear. Calm With Horses received funding from the WRAP Fund and shot on location in Clare and Galway.
Neasa Hardiman’s feature debut Sea Fever follows Siobhán, a marine biology student, joins the crew of a trawler in order to complete her studies. As an academic, Siobhán is out of place and clumsy in this environment. A few hours offshore, the trawler ploughs into something uncharted. Panic rises — they are adrift with no radio, helpless and hopelessly entangled. As tempers fray, Siobhán tries to analyse the life form. Only as the crew begin to suffer a gruesome fate, does Siobhán realise what the creature wants. She must find a solution fast, if the crew are to survive. Sea Fever is produced by Brendan McCarthy and John McDonnell for Fantastic Films.
Produced by Alan Moloney and Susan Mullen for Parallel Films, Zeresenay Mehari’s second feature Sweetness in the Belly is a tale of a woman caught between two worlds. Abandoned in Africa as a child, following a visit to the Sufi shrine in Bilal al Habash, Lilly (Dakota Fanning) is taken in by the shrine’s spiritual leader Great Abdal and brought up there as a devoted Muslim. At 17, she leaves for Ethiopia, where she falls in love with an idealistic doctor. With civil war looming, danger grows. Lilly is forced to flee to England. She finds home in a friendship with Amina, a refugee from Ethiopia who has fled the same war, and together they begin a mission to reunite people with their scattered families. We soon discover that Lilly’s mission isn’t purely selfless and Amina has buried a secret that she is trying to flee.
Calm with Horses, Sea Fever, Sweetness in the Belly and The Other Lamb have all been supported by Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland.
The 44th Toronto International Film Festival runs from 5 – 15 September, 2019. Click here for more information.