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The Mighty
Celt
DIR/WRI Pearse Elliott • PROD Robert
Walpole, Paddy Breathnach, Paddy McDonald • DOP Seamus
Deasy • ED Dermot Diskin • DES Tom McCullagh •
CAST Robert Carlyle, Gillian Anderson, Ken Stott, Tyrone McKenna
That Pearse Elliott's second feature is based
around a prize greyhound (and co-produced by Paddy Breathnach)
ends The Mighty Celt's comparison with Man About Dog,
his previous examination of the Irish state of mind. Set in
Belfast, Elliott's writer/director movie debut is a coming of
age story set against a shifting Northern Irish political landscape.
It uses humour to highlight the futility of division and hints
at an alternative thinking for the future. In Elliott's own
words, the film 'tells you what used to happen is over'.
The tone is set in The Mighty
Celt's opening sequence, an overhead shot of the Falls Road
resplendent with fluttering Union Jacks. The camera swoops
in on a group of boys throwing stones, moves over the peace
wall, to rest on Catholic kids playing soccer in crash helmets
as missiles rain down on them. Here we meet another example
of the film's use of polarities in 14-year-old soccer fan
Donal who acknowledges the past but embraces a multi-cultural
future, and father figure and republican Good Joe who calls
soccer 'that stupid English game'.
Donal helps Joe at the kennels,
forming genuine friendships with the dogs, in contrast to
Joe's hardline, abusive style both with Donal and the greyhounds.
Scenes of Donal training the dogs are reminiscent of Ken Loach's
Kes, also about a boy from a depressed environment
who achieves spiritual growth through his bond with a wild
bird.
Donal is Elliott's hope
for the future. With his mother, Joe and 'don't listen to
your ma' paramilitaries all giving him conflicting advice,
Donal is shown making his own way. He asks Joe if he can keep
and train a hound, which he calls The Mighty Celt after an
ancient Celtic warrior. Donal's drawings of this soldier from
a different time in Irish history can be juxtaposed with the
paramilitary murals frequently used as the film's backdrop.
Into the equation comes
Donal's mother Kate and reformed IRA member O. Kate believes
there are two types of people in the North: survivors and
victims, and she is a surviving victim. 'I was wounded', O
tells her. 'Who wasn't?' she fires back, as the two work through
their past hurt in a muddled but warm relationship. Whilst
they all carry battle scars, Kate and O are pushed forward
as commentary on a more inclusive future, whereas Joe is shown
crippled by his loneliness and the will to remain 'unrepentant'.
The film essentially belongs
to its actors and characterisations, with fine performances
from Tyrone McKenna as Donal, Ken Stott as Joe and Robert
Carlyle as O. But the shining light is Gillian Anderson, virtually
unrecognisable as Belfast single mum Kate, all boobs, roll-up
fags and high hair. Her short-vowelled, nasal accent is nothing
short of the real thing.
Entirely shot on location, The Mighty
Celt is a semi-autobiographical homage to Elliott's home
town, drawing on his passion for breeding dogs and injected
with his own take on post-conflict politics. It's a moving
story of atonement, told through sensitive characterisation,
and using paradox to underline Elliott's particular political
bug-bears. However, fans of the more hardened political drama
will not find the depth of conviction or gritty realism evident
in films made in the midst of the conflict, from the likes
of Jim Sheridan and Terry George in The Boxer or In
the Name of the Father.
Rebecca Kemp
Rated
15A (see IFCO
website for details)
The Mighty Celt is released on 26th August 2005.
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