Films

Portuguese Premiere | With guest - Aislinn Clarke (Director)

Haunted by a personal tragedy, Shoo, a home care worker, is sent to a remote village to look after an agoraphobic woman who fears her neighbours as much as she fears the Na Sídhe – sinister entities she believes abducted her decades earlier, on her wedding day. As the two build a deep bond, Shoo is consumed by the old woman’s paranoia and superstitions, having no choice but to confront the horrors of her own past. An «unapologetically Irish» film, “Fréwaka” – which means “roots” or “heavy roots” (doing the vigorousness of the native word justice) – penetrates the historical and intergenerational trauma ingrained in the soil of a country divided to this day, conjuring up sincretic tensions between the past and the future, the Catholic and the Pagan, the natural and the supernatural. Inspired by myths passed down by word of mouth, this folk-horror fable is a strong contender for the Méliès d'argent award.