On A Clear Day was the opening film at this year's Galway Film Fleadh. Paul Farren caught up with the actors Seán McGinley and Peter Mullan, and director Gaby Dellal to talk about the project.

Gaby Dellal (Director)
Paul: Tell me a bit about your beginnings as a writer/director; I know you were an actor...

Gaby: I started when I was about eighteen. Mainly I wanted to be a theatre actor, I wasn't really interested in film. I did quite a lot of theatre, quite a lot of touring, and then I did two TV series, but I never felt quite comfortable. So I started writing my own stuff, writing short plays. I had my first child, and I was so freaked out that I wrote a play about it. I put that play on, then had a few more children. I was too much in the situation where I was a mother of three going out for a bit part, and I just didn't want to do it; I had to be in control of it, so I started directing a bit on stage. I wrote a short film with a friend of mine, and I said 'who do we go to to direct it?' She said 'you'. And I'm eternally grateful to her. So I made a few short films, one called Toy Boys... Then Richard Jobson produced Tube Tales, which was a series of eight short films set on the tube. I did one of those, mine was called Rosebud, and then I did a short film called Football. And Football went to Sundance – that was about two and a half years ago. Then I did a long film which never got released.

Seán McGinley (Eddie)
Paul:How did you get the part?

Seán: Well, I was sent the script and I loved it the first time I read it. It was just a beautifully-crafted piece of work. I went over to London to meet Gaby, and Sarah the producer, to talk about it, and see how I felt about it. I had a very strong response, it it had made such an impression on me that I just started gabbing. So they just sat back and listened, and it was kind of obvious that we were on the same wavelength. Then they said 'okay, would you like to do it?' I said 'Absolutely'. That was that.

Peter Mullan (Frank)
Paul: There's a lot of home truths in On A Clear Day.

Peter: Ay, it's no' corny. Gabby always hated me saying it, but at script stage I was calling it a Sunday afternoon movie. She was like 'what do you mean, it's a Sunday afternoon movie? – I thought you liked it?', I said 'I did, to me it's a compliment: I watched The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner on a Sunday afternoon, I watched Bad Day at Black Rock on a Sunday Afternoon...'

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 106.