Ireland in Reel Life

With the theme,The Writing Irish,the festival will be held at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) and will screen films that have been adapted from works by Irish authors. “I went with the writing theme because Ireland produces a disproportionate amount of great writers. And many Indians often don’t realise they are Irish,” says O’Gorman,the festival director.

The festival will open on February 23 with The Dead,an adaptation of James Joyce’s short story. It is also the last film directed by Irish-American director,John Huston.

This will be followed by films based on contemporary writings,Maeve Binchy’s Circle of Friends on Friday and Partick McCabe’s The Butcher Boy on Sunday.

The festival will be an annual event. Subsequent editions will have themes centered around documentary and animation. “Irish animators have received several Oscar nominations in recent years in both the short and feature section,” says O’Gorman. “Whatever theme we go with,there’s a wide range of really great movies to pick from and Indians would enjoy them,” he adds.