Trafficked Parks in Irish Cinemas | The Irish Film & Television Network

’Trafficked’, as previously mentioned, started life as ‘Capital Letters’ and premiered at the 2004 Galway Film Fleadh. Trafficked illegally in the back of a van, a young African girl Taiwo, played by Ruth Negga (Love is the Drug) believes she is about to start a new life free from the oppression at home. But she soon finds that she is trapped in the dark seedy underworld of vice and drugs of a city living the Celtic Tiger. She meets Karl Shiel’s small time hood Keely, who unwittingly seals both their fates when he steals her from the gangsters she was supposed to work for. The feature marked Ruth’s screen debut at the time of its filming.

Explaining the return and theatrical release of the feature, Ciarán tells us it all comes down to the film’s title: “We’ve had a name change since then obviously but it’s exactly the same film, the very same cut.”He starts. “We basically changed the title in order to go for a nationwide release. ‘Trafficked’ is a really hard hitting title so for a Cineplex audience, well they’ll really know what they’re going to see – so between the distributor and ourselves we decided to change the title and give it a new lease of life.

Apart from a new regrade for the feature, sound updating and resizing it to 35mm Karl says the film has remained intact: “Mairead McIvor’s cut stayed the same” he says“I didn’t want to tamper with it. Once you start fiddling with something you don’t know when to stop, and while we’re in a different place now that was a moment in time. It could have been tempting to go back and fiddle with it but I wanted to keep it the way it was.”

The only elements that expose the film’s age are the orange and blue-coloured Dublin buses that whizz past the lead characters or the fact that various characters are seen smoking (quite legally, as it was then) in pubs and restaurants. And of course the subject of trafficking is still as hot a topic for filmmakers, as Ciarán says: “We really didn’t feel that time was against us because the issue of trafficking is as profound today as it was then.”

Karl Shiels (Batman Begins, Eden) became involved with the project after Ciarán approached him about it at the 2003 Galway Film Fleadh. Karl agreed to join the production and, as Ciarán tells us “When I got Karl then the bar was set to get the best cast available.” Which is what promptly ensued, Karl and Ruth are joined on the cast list by the likes of the late Niall O’Brien (Excalibur), Jasmine Russell (No Tears), Martin Dunne (My Left Foot) and Declan Conlon (Fair City).

’Trafficked’ was made for less than €10,000 and was shot guerrilla style, as Karl explains: “It was total gonzo filmmaking,” he says, “We’d be driving around in a car with the camera crew and we’d say “This looks good.” And get out and shoot.” Ciarán’s other directorial approach was having implicit trust in his actors’ abilities, evident when Karl tells us about the film’s shoot “ There was a rough blueprint – the script was there but there was lots of room to play off whatever scene it is or location we found ourselves in. We had free rein to go with our instincts and a lot of the really good stuff survived and a lot of the really bad stuff didn’t. And that was the nature of it. Even though it was this guerrilla sort of filmmaking it was still very controlled.”

This method obviously allowed for Karl to really explore his character Keely and event now, over six years later, he seems to know him inside out “I’m looking out the window at the moment and I can see three guys who could be Keely,” he says, “I really like that kind of character – there’s a lot to him, he’s like a large onion. If he sees an opportunity he’ll take it – he’s the kind of guy who’s never walk by a skip without having a mooch in it first. He’s constantly on the go.” And the results have been somewhat bittersweet for Ciarán “It has since always been said that the cast was great, which lead me to believe that the director was shite.He explains, laughing “We had no money but we had a great cast, a camera and a story and over the next few weeks we’ll be up against films like ‘Sex and the City’, ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘Iron Man’ and this film is just a nice alternative chance to see local talent.

Karl will star in Enda Walsh’s ‘Penelope’ in the Galway Druid theatre this July. Ciarán is currently developing a television series called ‘Witch-hunters’ which he is hoping to co-produce with a Canadian counterpart and a new feel good feature called ‘Road to Nowhere’.

‘Trafficked’ is produced by Nuala Cunningham (The Rutland), Ciarán O’Connor and Linda Cardiff (Niall Toibin: Seo Man) with Simon Hudson (cinematographer, The Ritual) as executive producer. Ruairi O’Brien (Murphy’s Law) was the project’s director of photography.

‘Trafficked’ will open in select Irish cinemas from Friday, May 21st.

Free Industry Newsletter

Subscribe to IFTN's industry newsletter - it's free and e-mailed directly to your inbox every week.
Click here to sign up.