Paul Fraser’s award-winning directorial debut ‘My Brothers’ is to be released in Irish cinemas on August 17.
Nominated for three IFTAs including Best Film Script, Editing and Original Score, Fraser’s (Heartlands, Somers Town, Dead Man’s Shoes) film was shot entirely in Cork and was written by Cork-born screenwriter Will Collins.
Set over Halloween weekend in 1987, ‘My Brothers’ is the story of the three boys’ journey to replace their dying father’s watch. Using a battered bread van, the brothers embark on a journey across the wild Irish landscape to get to an arcade machine in the small Irish seaside town of Ballybunion, where an identical watch resides.
The feature, which was produced by Rob Walpole and Rebecca O’Flanagan of Treasure Entertainment (Good Vibrations, The Eclipse, Man About Dog), was shot in 2009 and premiered at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. It also opened the Galway Film Fleadh in the same year.
Treasure are distributing the film with O’Flanagan telling IFTN of her “delight” in getting the film to an Irish cinema audience following a successful run on the international festival circuit.
She said: “We are delighted that ‘My Brothers’ will be playing theatrically for Irish audiences across the country very soon. It has had a great festival life since 2010 and all the team here worked very hard and were determined to get it to a theatrical audience, so we’re delighted that that has come to fruition.
“We had a terrifically talented cast and crew that worked so hard on this film under difficult conditions. They created a film that has gathered amazing fans and critical acclaim internationally during its festival run so it is very gratifying for all of us that the film will now be made available to a wider audience.”
Paul Fraser has been working in the UK and international film industry for over 12 years and is best known as a talented and accomplished screenwriter of such Shane Meadows’ titles as ‘A Room for Romeo Brass’, ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ and most recently ‘Somers Town’. Fraser also wrote ‘Heartlands’ for Irish director Damien O’Donnell.
Of ‘My Brothers’ Fraser said: “We had an immense cast and crew who worked tirelessly to get this film made, in the worst of possible weather conditions November-December Cork could offer. We’d spent weeks, searching schools and holding open auditions to find the three boys who would be sitting in a bread van together, as brothers, traveling to Ballybunion. All were first timers, like myself and Will, so we were just thrilled it was happening half the time. All three were brilliant.
“We set out to make an intimate story of three brothers (Will and I are both one of three boys), we wanted it to feel real, honest and about them in their moment. We’re all so proud that it’s getting a release now after going down so well at its festival screenings”.
Filmed entirely in Cork and starring a young cast of Timmy Creed as Noel, Paul Courtney as Paudie, TJ Griffin as Scwally, it also features Kate Ashfield (Shaun of the Dead, Hush), Don Wycherley (Father Ted, Ondine) and Sarah Green (The Guard).
Among the Irish crew who worked on the project included director of photography PJ DIllon, production designer Mark Geraghty and editor Emer Reynolds.
‘My Brothers’ was made in association with the Irish Film Board, RTÉ and Windmill Lane Films.
It will be screened in
My Brothers will be screening in Movies @ Dundrum, The Light House Cinema Smithfield, Screen Cinema Dublin, Eye cinema Galway, The Gate Cinema Cork, The Triskel Cinema Cork, Queens Film Theatre Belfast, Carrick Cineplex Roscommon, Park Cinema Clonakilty, Bantry Cinemax, Gaeity Cinema Arklow, Century Cinema Letterkenny.
