A full length feature film adaptation of the celebrated Irish language novel Cré na Cille has been produced to commemorate 100 year since the birth of the book’s author Máirtín Ó Cadhain.
Produced by ROSG, a Conamara based film and television production company, and directed by Robert Quinn, son of the renowned film maker and photographer Bob Quinn, Cré na Cille is considered to be the major contemporary Irish language novel and the film adaptation was shot last year to commemorate 100 years since the birth of the book’s author Máirtín Ó Cadhain. Over 60 cast and crew were involved in the production of the film.
Cré na Cille, translated as Graveyard Clay, is set in a Conamara cemetery and is a darkly-humorous tale of an intense jealousy and hatred between two sisters which worsens with age and continues into the afterlife.
Cré na Cille premiered in Galway in December 2006 and has enjoyed a successful run of film festivals both at home and abroad. Last year the film beat hundreds of other international movies to be amongst the final 16 features to be selected for competition at the Shanghai International Film Festival, and was short listed for the Best Feature Award at the Magners Irish Film Festival in Boston where it was described as ‘….a fiercely funny black comedy, wonderfully acted and beautifully shot.’ Cré na Cille recently won the award for ‘Outstanding Services to the Irish Language’ at the prestigious Aisling Award’s and received four nominations at the Irish Film and Television Awards.
Starring Bríd Ní Neachtain as Caitríona Pháidín, Cré na Cille focuses on a variety of buried bodies who are tormented by the slow passing of time and gossip non-stop about one another. The main character is Caitríona, who has passed on to the afterlife and is eagerly awaiting the death of her sister Neil so that the pair can continue the long running battle of hatred between them.
Throughout the film, viewers are introduced to Caitríona’s cohabitants in the graveyard and a number of newly deceased people who bring with them news of the latest outrages happening above ground.
Other cast members in Cré na Cille include talented actors Mac dara Ó Fátharta, well known from his role as evil Tadhg in Ros na Rún, Peadar Lamb, Joe Steve Ó Neachtain, Diarmuid Mac an Adhastair and Máire Ní Mháille.
A number of the actors starring in the film production have previously starred in a dramatic version of the novel, which was adapted for the stage by Mac Dara Ó Fátharta. In fact Bríd Ní Neachtain was nominated for an Irish Times Theatre Award for her performance in the play in 2002.
Cré na Cille was co-funded by TG4, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland ‘Sound and Vision’ scheme and private investment through Section 481. Other support has been received from the Department of Community, Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs, to bring the finished film to a final 35mm print and thus enabling it’s screening in festivals and cinemas. Cré na Cille is 94 minutes in length, and is fully subtitled in English.
Editorial Notes:
Máirtín Ó Cadhain – Brief Biography:
Author Máirtín Ó Cadhain is best known for his magisterial prose work Cré na Cille, written in 1949, but he was a man of many parts – academic, scholar, republican, community activist and polemicist.
A complex and sometimes intimidating figure, Ó Cadhain has cast a long shadow since his death in 1970. His contribution to the development of writing in Irish has only been questioned on the basis that the brilliance of his prose has set a standard that his successors cannot achieve. He is regarded as the most astute agitator and most canny media manipulator of his generation.