BelSports
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Janae Milner
Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Kien Navarro
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
joegreene32
Having read some rave reviews and comments on this film, I actually bought the DVD. What a disappointment. Has everyone been watching the same film. Nothing happens. A young traveler girl wanders from scene to scene, the non-narrative stretched to near breaking point. If anything, the style and technique are lifted straight from the Dardenne brothers film Rosetta, albeit without the gripping story and plot. What we have here is a con job, mutton dressed as lamb. This slight drama masquerades as social comment, but there is an uneasy feeling as you watch it that a middle-class professional fashion photographer could be accused of exploiting the travelers. I can only deduce that it appeals to other middle class liberals who want to get down with the tinkers, but who wouldn't lift a finger or inquire further on their behalf. Above all, it's boring. High point the mother's performance, low point the long shots where nothing happens. The piano music at the end says it all. Warning: Brendan Gleeson is not in this film.
atyson
This is a 'slice-of-life' drama about a young traveller girl (Winnie) and her family in contemporary Ireland. Most of the (in)action takes place in a kind of lay-by next to a building site off a major road. You will probably forget that it is fiction - it's main characters are a real family and it is shot with a rough-and-ready documentary feel. Much of the dialogue is hard to catch and is spoken against a backdrop of traffic noise (probably as much a reason for showing it in the UK with subtitles as the issue of deciphering the accents). That said, there is visual poetry in much of the shooting (for example, the sequence where Winnie is ferreting around inside the Clothes Bin or where the girls go for chips).The real strength of the movie is in what it refrains from saying: it scrupulously avoids sending a 'message' to anyone about anything. It simply presents - and is utterly convincing for that reason. The life is grim, but these people are not victims, they are not conspicuously persecuted by the authorities (the police and Council seem half-embarrassed to be issuing an eviction notice at the trailer door). Drink and solvent abuse and theft are presented more as the mere distractions of a daily routine rather than cause or effect. There isn't a lot to choose between teachers, social workers or even a traveller activist. These interested parties seem disengaged from the family's lifestyle and to be simply performing roles which barely impact upon the travellers' circumstances.Although every opportunity for 'kitchen sink' plot development is thankfully eschewed, the trip to the standpipe for water which bookends the movie helps to suggest a cumulative worsening of the circumstances of the family.I read somewhere that the director is influenced by the director Alan Clarke and you can see that. It has that directness of observation and honesty about human behaviour. Whatever, I look forward to the next feature by this director.
rasecz
A documentary-style snapshot of the life of a Traveller family in the docks area of Dublin. (Travellers are the Irish equivalent of Roma gypsies, but those two groups have entirely different histories.) A resilient mother and her ten children occupy trailers, or caravans as the Brits call them, on land owned by the local council. The film primarily follows Winnie, a ten year daughter, but the mother also plays an important role as she fights eviction notices and tries to improve the live of her children. Issues of discrimination, difficulties with the authorities and a social security net that, while well intentioned, can do little for the family are topics that permeate the film. Members of the family and their neighbors play themselves, while actors take up non-Traveller roles. The director should be commended for integrating professionals and non-professionals into a seamless whole.
paddynd
I saw a screening of the film at the DGA on Oct. 28th followed by a Q&A with director Perry Ogden. The film is shot documentary style with real people rather than actors and while it is scripted, there is a lot of improvisation and "real life" activity going on. The girl who is the focal point of the movie is terrific and it is amazing how matter-of-factly she goes about her daily life in a trailer with no running water. To his credit, director Perry Ogden does not delve into the rich versus poor clichés, but presents a very straightforward look at life for a family on the edge of the social system in modern Ireland. The film won top honors at the Galway Film Festival and has been well-received at other festivals as well.
