Chester International Film Festival 2022
Arracht
Directed by Tom Sullivan
Starring: Dónall Ó Héalai, Saise Ní Chuinn, Dara Devaney
2019
Ireland
90 min
Cert 15
Subtitled

An Irish-language murder ballad of famine and injustice.

Ireland, 1845 on the eve of The Great Hunger, Colmán Sharkey, a fisherman, father and husband, takes in a stranger at the behest of a local priest. Patsy, a former soldier in the Napoleonic wars, arrives just ahead of `the blight’, a disease that eventually wipes out the country’s potato crop, contributing to the death and displacement of millions. As the crops rot in the fields, Colmán, his brother and Patsy travel to the English landlord’s house to request a stay on the rent, with the attendant consequences. 

Introduced by Professor Victor Merriman, Professor of Critical Drama Studies at Edge Hill University. Victor is an expert on Irish drama, and is a member of the British Association of Irish Studies International Advisory Board.