Foscadh

You could call Seán Breathnach's new Irish language film Foscadh (shelter) a companion piece to Lenny Abrahamson's 2007 film Garage and Gerard Barrett's Pilgrim Hill from 2013. All three are starkly realistic looks at rural life and it's effect on the male psyche but thankfully Foscadh has some bit of optimism lurking under it's ambiguous shell. Not much, but enough to give you something to latch onto. It's a fine film but jesus, it will remind you of how lucky you have it.

It's the wank at the wake that really clues you into John's (Dónall O Héalai) mental state. His mam is lying in a coffin in the living room and he leaves the room to have some alone time. He's an adult orphan now, alone in his house in the middle of Connemara and he's a stranger to all those who know him. His uncle Paddy (Macdara Ó Fátharta, Tadhg from Ros na Rún) thinks he's a bit slow but others assume he's just been wrapped in cotton wool all his life by over protective parenting. A desire for chips one night sees him take a beating and his recuperation lets new friends enter his life, Dave (Cillian O'Gairbhi), his hospital roommate and his nurse Siobhan (Fionnuala Flaherty), both of whom may have ulterior motives.

Director Seán Breathnach, working off Donal Ryan's book, The Thing About September, has created a tale that will get into your bones like the damp, windswept locations it's filmed in. Years ago John would be derided as a gomey, a fool, the town weirdo and in more enlightened times we know it's not his fault but Foscadh never gives us any definitive answers, to anything really. Did his parents do a number on him? Why are these new people in his life so nice to him? Is it foscadh they're after or genuine friendship? Why has the town bully such a set on him? What's really going on in that head of his. There's just enough left unsaid and unanswered to keep the film buzzing in your head for days after. There's an air of unpredictability too that will leave you on edge on any number of occasions. A trespass you feel sure will end in tragedy, a night time encounter with an enemy, that drinking game. It's sickeningly tense at times.

Dónall O Héalai is magnificent as John. Just as good as he was in last year's Arracht but so different in his physicality that a casual film goer might never guess the same actor played both parts.Your nerves would be wrecked for him, when locals with their eyes on the future come sniffing around the land that's been left to him, when he's coerced into making his interest known to the opposite sex. Social cues don't exist in John's world, if you've never been taught to interact with the outside world you'll always struggle and that struggle will stay with you for life leading you into morally murky waters. At times it feels like a parable about the dangers of over protective parenting, a warning about coddling but Dónall's work will always leave you unsure in your thinking. 

The same goes for Cillian O'Gairbhi's Dave and Fionnula Flaherty's Siobhan. You're never quite sure where you stand with them. Has loneliness driven them towards John or is it the promise of a free gaff? Will they give him the tools he needs to become his own man or take from him? The wild and boisterous Dave might be easier to read but Siobhan's a vaguer presence with Flaherty doing great work especially during a beautiful campfire scene that points to true motives though then later scenes leave you wondering again. You've got to admire a film that leaves you the dots to join up yourself.

Foscadh is in cinemas now. It's really worth your time.