That They May Face The Rising Sun to receive World Premiere at the 67th BFI London Film Festival
Posted: 31st August 2023
Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland is delighted to congratulate Pat Collins and the creative team behind That They May Face The Rising Sun as the film has been announced to receive its World Premiere at the prestigious BFI London Film Festival, where it will compete as part of the Journey strand in October. The film joins Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy's Baltimore, which will receive its European Premiere at the festival and screen In Competition, following its World Premiere at the Telluride Film Festival this week.
Adapted from John McGahern's final novel, That They May Face The Rising Sun follows Joe (Barry Ward) and Kate Ruttledge (Anna Bederke), who have returned from London to live and work among a small, rural, lakeside community near where Joe grew up. Now, deeply embedded in life around the lake, the drama of a year in their lives and those of the memorable characters that move about them unfolds through the rhythm of work, ritual and the passing seasons.
Written by Éamon Little and Pat Collins, the film is produced by Tina O'Reilly for South Wind Blows and Brendan J. Byrne for Cyprus Avenue Films. Pat Collins had previously been selected at the BFI London Film Festival for his feature documentary The Dance.
That They May Face The Rising Sun is a South Wind Blows, Harvest Films and Cyprus Avenue Films production. The film is proudly supported by Fís Eíreann/Screen Ireland, the BAI, RTÉ, Northern Ireland Screen, BBC Northern Ireland and Yellow Moon Postproduction.
Baltimore is a psychological thriller based around an actual armed raid in 1974, in which 19 masterpieces were stolen from one of Ireland’s great houses – Russborough in Co. Wicklow. The raid was masterminded by English Heiress Rose Dugdale in her efforts to support the IRA armed struggle at that time. The film charts her journey from privileged aristocrat to committed rebel. The film plays out over the course of the days following the raid when Rose is in hiding in a remote cottage with her two accomplices.
Baltimore is written and directed by Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy (Desperate Optimists), and the film is financed by Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, with the participation of Bankside Films, Coimisiún na Meán, RTÉ, and BCP Asset Management.
This year's BFI London Film Festival will run from 4th-15th October. Find out more about the full programme here.