A film republicans should see
Bogwoman
Irish Film Centre
After doing the tour of the festivals this fine film with a
republican theme is now on release in the Irish Film Centre in
Dublin's Temple Bar. For all you republicans in Dublin who decry the
Hollywood pap you have to put up with, I'd strongly urge you to get
down to Temple Bar right away, fight your way through the stags and
hens, and check it out.
Written and directed by Derry filmmaker Tom Collins, Bogwoman won the
new directors award at the St Louis Film Festival and much praise
elsewhere. It tells the story of a young woman, Maureen (Rachael
Dowling), who moves from Donegal to Derry's Bogside in the late 50s.
There, she builds a new life amid the poverty, pawn shops, bookies
and working women. As the story unfold through the 1960s we also see
the ever-present and oppressive RUC and the boiling cauldron that was
Derry and the Six Counties.
Maureen marries Barry (Peter Mullan, who found fame in Ken Loach's My
Name is Joe) who is an amiable but useless gambler. The film charts
her struggles to build a life and family and her growing political
awareness as she experiences life around her. In this way the film is
as much a feminist as a republican story. It ends with Maureen on the
barricades in the battle of the Bogside.
Bogwoman is a low-budget film which manages to hold its own despite
all the constraints that a lack of money brings. It is a strong
story, well-photographed, with few flaws. Get along and see it.
Bogwoman's run at the IFC has been extended beyond Friday 5 February.
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