That They May Face the Rising Sun

The unsaid is everything in Ireland: what we fail to express, or find ways other than words to. It is, I think, what often makes us such good writers: we all live a little too much inside our own heads. We tend to think a lot about thinking a lot. McGahern expresses that…

Ronan Doyle

I cried so much this is maybe one of the best films ever made, even after it finished I feared I might suddenly start weeping once more, and it wasn’t even that sad a film really.  Feels like so many movies are trying and failing to do what Pat Collins has done with this,…

harrymanley43

rural ireland is a particularly lonely place. you live completely isolated, surrounded by stretches of beautiful green nothingness for miles and miles. human contact is minimal and moments of togetherness are rare. but truly - the sense of community in the countryside is so…

Cian

"You know, the rain comes down. The sun shines. Grass grows. Children grow old and die. That’s the holy all of it. We all know it full well, but can’t even whisper it."

gnhatzig

Scrupulously observant as the panoramic look at the rural Irish landscapes and warmly tranquil as the light breeze passing over the grasslands, Collins' film is an ode to quiet and humble existence- where the subtlety and sensibilities of human lives are well-mirrored.…

Abhishek

The rhythms of country life are beautifully captured in Pat Collins’ film of John McGahern’s last novel. It depicts a year in the life of a rural community centred around an artistic couple. Not much happens, and yet everything does. There’s so much going on beneath the…

Aoife

So I read the John McGahern novel a couple of years ago and was keen to watch how a page to screen adaptation might work. Evidently there are elements in a novel that simply can't be compressed into two hour film. Certainly the setting, nestled in idyllic bucolic Ireland is…

OakleighIrish

this entire film is how I feel when I peel potatoes with a knife instead of a peeler

Ani

Like watching grass grow! I confess that until a French friend of my wife was talking to her about it, I had never heard of this film, nor any of the actors in it, nor indeed the celebrated Irish author on whose final novel, the film was based. Then we discovered it was…

Chris 🇬🇧🇫🇷 ML