Format: Beta SP PAL
Aspect Ratio 16:9 letterbox
Colour
Stereo Sound
R/T 8 mins
2007
Festivals:
Galway, Cork, Dublin, Belfast, Dingle Ireland. Oberhaussen Germany,
FIKE Portugal, Naoussa Greece, MediaWave Hungary,
Alter-native Romania, Imaginaria Italy, Animated Dreams Estonia, Open Cinema Russia.
An Cailleach Bhéarra 2007, is an interpretation of an ancient myth associated with the Beara peninsula, County Cork.
In his 'Book of the Cailleach' Gearóid O' Crualaoich collected Irish stories featuring the 'cailleach' or old hag, otherworld female, mother earth, sovereignty queen or witch. This film joins together two fragments of such stories; one where the 'cailleach' faces down the Christian church (which eventually undermined and erased her), the other where her struggle to maintain the cycle of nature becomes increasingly difficult. The style of the film, using time-lapse photography and a large scale puppet in real landscape, attempts a surreal and poetic treatment of these oblique remnants of folk memory. The soundtrack has a dream-like quality; the 'scratchy film' effect suggests worn/torn imagery from a previous yet uncertain time… leaving us to make our own sense of it all.
"Animator Naomi Wilson's original vision and playful inventiveness enlivens this retelling of a traditional Irish
legend with striking images that will remain with us for a long time to come" - Andrew Knotting, Cork Film Festival, 2006.
