Song for a Raggy Boy (2003)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Aisling Walsh

Writers:

Aisling Walsh (writer) &
Kevin Byron Murphy (writer) ...

Release Date:

22 August 2003 (Denmark)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Four walls. One faith. No identity.

Plot:

"Song for a Raggy Boy" is based on the true story of a single teacher's courage to stand up against an untouchable prefect's sadistic disciplinary regime and other abuse in a Catholic Reformatory and Industrial School in 1939 Ireland.

Plot Keywords:

Boy | Strap | Abuse | Reformatory | Teacher

Awards:

14 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Aidan Quinn	...	William Franklin
Iain Glen	...	Brother John
Marc Warren	...	Brother Mac
Dudley Sutton	...	Brother Tom
Alan Devlin	...	Father Damian
Stuart Graham	...	Brother Whelan
John Travers	...	Liam Mercier 636
Chris Newman	...	Patrick Delaney 743
Andrew Simpson	...	Gerard Peters 458
Mark Butler	...	Downey 913
Bernard Manning	...	Rogers 855
Samuel Bright	...	Ryan 126
Robert Sheehan	...	O Reilly 58
Caoimhin 'Tojo' Barra Doherty	...	Murphy 338 (as Caoimhin 'Tojo' Barry Doherty)
Michael McGee	...	Lynch 76

Also Known As:

Drengene fra Skt. Judes (Denmark)
Los Ninos de San Judas (Spain: Catalan title)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

Ireland | UK | Denmark | Spain

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R16 | Ireland:15PG

Filming Locations:

County Cork, Ireland

Company:

Fantastic Films

Men may cry.

An outstanding film from Ireland that is playing to strongly moved and even angry audiences in many parts of Europe as well as competing at the box office in its own territory favourably with such more obviously commercial movies as Intermission and Veronica Guerin. It has won either jury or audience awards at Ghent, Copenhagen, Cherbourg and Slovenia festivals. It tackles the tough and difficult-to-film subject of child abuse and manages to uplift your emotions before devestating and dashing them. All the performances, particularly those from Iain Glen as the sadist priest Brother John and from John Travers as the lead boy Mercier are outstanding and achieving widespread recognition, and many people think this is Aidan Quinn's best role ever. Skillfully and humanely handled by director Aisling Walsh, the film has more conviction than others in its family of films such as The Magdalene Sisters or Conspiracy of Silence and deserves to be seen anywhere it hasn't yet received a distribution. Anyone still interested in honest, highly moving drama or anyone whose youth was not a bed of roses will appreciate this film. An unusual film in that, just possibly, men may cry at it.