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
The Mighty Celt is released on 26th August 2005.
