The long-awaited release of Ciarán Foy’s horror film 'Citadel' - distributed by Wildcard - will arrive on 14th June, more than a year after it won the prestigious Audience award at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
Since then the film has enjoyed great success on the global film festival circuit- winning Best Debut feature at the Galway Film Fleadh and major awards at locations including Amsterdam, Sheffield, Toronto and South Korea.
The script for ‘Citadel’ is based on Mr Foy’s real life trauma of being attacked by a gang of youths when he was aged 18, leaving him with agoraphobia - a condition passed on to his main character Tommy.
The perpetrators of the crime were reimagined for the big screen as vicious feral children, their faces disguised by hoods, who torment Tommy as he attempts to protect his baby daughter from harm.
The film’s title refers to an abandoned tower block occupied by the children, where Tommy must face up to his fears.
Mr Foy described his excitement ahead of the film’s Irish cinema release:
‘It's really great that my debut feature film ‘Citadel’ is finally being released in Ireland. Particularly in Dublin, the city that in many ways gave birth to the story. This comes after the film has literally travelled around the globe and the response it has received has been amazing. It received a theatrical release in the US last November and is doing great on DVD and digital platforms over there. All the same, there's a sense of satisfying completion about showing it on home ground and I can't wait for audiences to experience the terror,’ he said.
Produced by Katie Holly of Blinder Films, ‘Citadel’ was supported by the Irish Film Board and Creative Scotland.
A featurette in which Ciarán Foy discusses the production process and how to make kids look frightening with make-up effects can be found below: