Maeve Murphy’s second feature film ‘Beyond the Fire’ will screen tonight (April 22nd) at the London Independent Film Festival.
Nominated for Best UK Feature & Best Director at the Festival, ‘Beyond the Fire’ tells the story of Sheamy (Scot Williams – ‘Hillsbourough’), a gentle Irish ex-priest who arrives in London to find his old family friend and mentor Father Brendan. After an unsuccessful search Sheamy reaches out to the only other person he knows in London, Rory (Chris O’Neil – ‘Backbeat’). Rory, a talented musician and band member, takes Sheamy under his wing and introduces him to his flatmate Katie (Cara Seymour – ‘Adaptation’). Immediately, the attraction is undeniable between Sheamy and Katie. However, Katie is a warm hearted woman with her own emotional scars. Their intense romance is short-lived and begins to collapse when the past comes back to haunt them.
Hailing from Northern Ireland, director and writer Maeve Murphy wrote and directed the short, ‘Amazing Grace’ (BFI/C4) starring Aidan Gillen (The Wire), and directed the short ‘Salvage’ (N.Irish Screen/R.T.E). Her debut feature ‘Silent Grace’ told of the untold story of women’s involvement in the notorious 1980/81 Dirty Protest/Hunger Strikes in N.Ireland. Starring Orla Brady (Mistresses) it was nominated for the Aisling Award and the TWN Award for Excellence and won the Soka Art Award. Maeve is starting to develop her third film, ‘The Riot Act.’
‘Beyond the Fire’ was developed with producer Rebecca O’Brien (The Wind that Shakes the Barley) at Parallax Pictures and then with producer Dean Silvers (Spanking the Monkey) in New York before being produced in London by Swipe Films in association with Met Films, produced by Helen L Alexander, Maeve Murphy and Frank Mannion. Having recently screened at the Jameson Belfast Film Festival, the film has received £5,000 as part of the UK Film Council's Prints and Advertising Fund for its distribution.
Developed by Northern Ireland Screen & The Irish Film Board, crew for the film includes: Director of Photography - Mattias Nyberg; Sound - Gareth John; Editing - Agnieszka Liggett; Production Design - Duncan Howell; Costume Design - Mahab Kazmi with Neel Dhorajiwala and Colm Ó'Snodaigh composing.
Irish shorts ‘New Boy’ (Steph Green) and ‘Out of the Blue’ (Michael Lavelle) will also screen at the London Independent Film Festival.
