peter flynn
festival director

dawn morrissey
festival producer

harvey o'brien
associate director

7:00PM FRIDAY NOV. 9 | HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE

Joe Yumba, a Congolese ex-pat with a mysterious past is granted asylum in Ireland and is later joined by refugee woman and her 9 year old son who he claims are his family.  Employed as a security guard for a Dublin bank, all seems well until a ruthless gang kidnaps Joe’s family.  Their plan is to force him to help them break into the bank’s vault, but the cunning Joe turns the tables on the gang and begins to play its members off of each other. One of the most acclaimed Irish films of recent years, David Gleeson’s exhilarating heist film is both a compelling character study and an unflinching look at contemporary Dublin.  “A terrific film that reminds us what big screens were made for,” The Sunday Independent. 

7:00PM SATURDAY NOV. 10 | HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE

Following the death of his beloved uncle, budding playwright Jack O’Toole becomes determined to write and stage a play about his Boston Irish family.  Initially Jack’s efforts meet with opposition from those about him, particularly his father Martin and cousin Billy.  Even Jack’s wife Kate is less than enthused, believing that her husband’s energies would be better spent fixing the roof than writing plays.  But ultimately, Jack’s belief in the play wins out – the play is staged in the backroom of the local bar (in reality Waltham’s Skellig Pub) and family and friends gather round in support.  Writer/director Dave McLaughlin has made a warm, funny and ultimately moving film - a loving valentine to the Boston Irish.

3:00PM SATURDAY NOV. 10 | HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE

Short Order opens with a flamboyant song and dance number - aping Hollywood’s Technicolor musicals of the 40s and 50s - then sharply shift gears to focus on the darkly comic antics of an oddball group of chefs, waiters, food critics and delivery people whose lives and loves are intertwined in the business of food. Playing out over one long night in an unidentified restaurant, the film centers on short order cook Fifi (Emma de Caunes) – whose culinary skills are such that her food can cause orgasms!  Fifi, however, is in a rut and is in desperate need to escape her humdrum life.  Short Order is a wonderfully colorful, funny and sexy confection, exuberantly directed by Anthony Byrne and acted with considerable charm by an eclectic cast that includes Vanessa Redgrave and John Hurt!

7:30PM SUNDAY NOV. 11 | HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE

John Boorman’s savage indictment of Celtic Tiger Ireland features Brendan Gleeson (2006’s Excellence Award honoree) in the dual role of a wealthy Dublin businessman and his sinister down-and-out doppelganger who steals his identity.  Gleeson is terrific in both roles, proving once again that he’s one of Ireland’s finest actors. The director of such classics as Point Blank (1968), Deliverance (1972) and Hope and Glory (1987), tackles his first Irish subject since 1998’s acclaimed The General (which also starred Gleeson) and the result is a clever, twisted, surprisingly fun tale of corruption, greed and the social costs of Ireland’s so-called economic miracle.

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