Kings (2007/I)

Director:

Tom Collins

Writers:

Tom Collins (writer)
Jimmy Murphy (play)

Release Date:

10 January 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A group of men reunite for a friend's funeral.

Plot Keywords:

Funeral | Death | Friend | Accident | First Aid

Awards:

7 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Colm Meaney	...	Joe Mullan
Donal O'Kelly	...	Jap Kavanagh
Brendan Conroy	...	Git Miller
Donncha Crowley	...	Shay Mulligan
Barry Barnes	...	Máirtín Rogers
Seán Ó Tarpaigh	...	Jackie Flaherty
Peadar O'Treasaigh	...	Micil Flaherty
Seán T. Ó Meallaigh	...	Joe Mullan Jnr.
Christopher Greene	...	Jap Jnr.
Graham Feeley	...	Git Jnr.
Ronan Moloney	...	Jackie Jnr.
Simon Drislane	...	Shay Jnr.
Darragh O'Brien	...	Máirtín Jnr.
Gabrielle Reidy	...	Maggie
Cathy Murphy	...	Bridie

Runtime:

Canada:88 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Ireland | UK

Language:

Irish Gaelic | English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Ireland:15A | Canada:14A

Filming Locations:

Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK

Company:

Newgrange Pictures

Trivia:

Ireland's Official Submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008).

Movie Connections:

Followed by Kings: From the Bogside to the Bright Lights (2008) (TV)

Elegiac and poignant

Kings is a very fine film. It is a haunting, melancholic portrait of lost souls, the people on our streets who once belonged to some place, somewhere in another time, but who have fallen out of touch with the world around them. Director Tom Collins seizes on this feeling of loneliness and misplacement and forces us to confront it, as we immerse ourselves in the lives of Git, Jap, Máirtín, Shay and Joe. The haunting, ghostly memory of Jackie makes us also mourn his passing, as he appears to his friends between sleeping and waking, between day and night.

Indeed the film itself feels caught in time between dusk and dawn, as the characters let the world pass by in the final third of the film, when an ominous, creeping awareness invades on their drunken reverie. The atmosphere is one of a suspended moment – the group of friends toast their lost companion in an eerie, empty back room, whilst muffled noise just creeps in from the bar outside. The Irish language they speak amongst themselves reflects the otherness of their lives, their misplacement in this world. As they leave and come back, it is as if they move from one world to the other, and when they finally go, they could be gone forever.

With excellent performances and a taut script, the evocative cinematography and soundtrack make this an achingly sad and beautiful work that is timeless in it's relevance.