Director: Pat O’Connor
Starring: Meryl Streep, Michael Gambon, Catherine
McCormack, Kathy Burke, Sophie Thompson, Brid Brennan
and Rhys Ifans.
Plot:
Adopted from the acclaimed play by Brian Friel.
A young boy tells the story of growing up in a
fatherless home with his unmarried mother and four
spinster aunts in 1930's Ireland. Each of the five
women, different from the other in temperament and
capability, is the emotional support system, although at
times reluctantly, for each other, with the eldest
assuming the role of a 'somewhat meddling' overseer. But
then into this comes an elderly brother, a priest too
senile to perform his clerical functions, who has "come
home to die" after a lifetime in Africa; as well, there
also arrives the boy's father, riding up on a
motorcycle, only to announce that he's on his way to
Spain to fight against Franco. Nevertheless, life goes
on for the five sisters, although undeniably affected by
the presence of the two men, they continue to cope as a
close-knit unit... until something happens that disrupts
the very fabric of that cohesiveness beyond repair.
Locations
The small cottage was built in Coronation Plantation,
which is near the Sally Gap in the Wicklow Mountains.
Kippure Estate, on the way from the Sally Gap to Manor
Kilbride, was used extensively as location in particular
for the fire and dance scenes.
The small village of Hollywood became the set for the
local village. Road scenes were shot around the Sally
Gap and the Wicklow Mountains.
Luggala Estate and nearby Lough Dan, near Roundwood,
were also used as locations.
