Plot

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

In the twenty five years they have been there, done that, the Navvy (Irish working man) clock does not stop for alienation or inner despair. They are working men, strong even indestructible. Those gnawing feelings of something not being quite right are ameliorated by the camaraderie of their mates. So what if it all ends in tears or a thumping. They can give as good as they get or used to. At least they are alive and having the craic. Until it all changes, and a silence falls on the reverie of the gang. Tragedy has struck Jackie the youngest, the brightest and the bravest. The gang does what has always been done - they gather together for a Wake, a final celebration, a cheer, to give Jackie Flavin a send off fit for a king, a king of the Kilburn High Road. He, unlike them is set to return to Ireland - his body found bruised and battered on the railway track, crushed by the passing Kilburn train. Jackie's father Micil arrives over to North West London to bring his son home. The gang must meet Micil and throughout the day the memories fuse of who Jackie was and what it is like to be a Paddy in England. The men circle around the truth as they travel through Kilburn and as their memories collide they are inevitably drawn to an Irish Pub. It is in such a home from home that the gang are forced to confront the possibility that Jackie"s death was no accident but a suicide and that they then must face up to the bitter chill of truth.—Newgrange Pictures

Kings In the mid 1970s a group of young men left the west of Ireland, bound for London, filled with ambition for a better life in a place where they could be kings. Thirty years have passed when they meet again. Their youngest friend, Jackie has died. For some of them those thirty years have been hard. Their muscle has been spent, their hopes dashed on the roads and building sites of Britain, to be replaced with a sense of hopeless disaffection. As the truth about Jackies death is uncovered, and long-held secrets are laid bare, the men discover that ultimately it is your friends who break your heart - and your friends who can save it.

This long-awaited tender film is a beautifully shot depiction of the isolation felt by long-term migrants who struggle to find a place to call home. KINGS is a story of a lost generation, rich in humanity and emotion, and with a heart-breaking resonance not just for the Irish, in todays changing world.