Traveller movie to be screened at top festival
An award-winning Irish film about a Traveller family has been selected to screen at a prestigious European festival, it was confirmed today.
Perry Ogden’s debut feature, Pavee Lackeen, will be shown at the 62nd Venice International Film Festival, which is due to take place in Lido di Venezia from August 31 until September 10, 2005.
“It’s a great honour for Pavee Lackeen to be selected for the Venice Film Festival and it is a fantastic platform for the film ahead of it’s screening in Toronto. The story of Winnie and her family is a universal one and I believe that international audiences will strongly identify with it,” the director said.
The latest accolade comes just days after the movie took the prize for Best First Feature Film at the Galway Fleadh.
Pavee Lackeen was chosen as one of only seven films from around the world to screen in the International Critics Week section of the festival.
The critics week section of the festival focuses on highlighting the work of first time directors and the prize winner will be selected by an audience jury. All of the entries in that section of the festival are eligible to compete, along with films in the official selection, for the 100,000 euro (£70,000) Lion of the Future award for debut director.
Critics week at the festival has in the past showcased the work of a series of talented filmmakers including Mike Leigh, Olivier Assayas and Peter Mullan, whose feature ‘The Magdalene Sisters’, scooped the coveted Golden Lion Award for Best Feature at Venice in 2002.
The film, which was financed by acclaimed photographer, Ogden, and the Irish Film Board, is set in the Traveller community and presents a tough but luminous portrait of a marginalised group often living in poverty in modern Ireland.
The feature tells the story of the daily life of a Traveller girl – including fighting at school over name-calling, getting into trouble for petty theft, sourcing clothes from a recycling centre and dressing up for a night out that involves eating chips by the side of a road.
It was filmed with a cast of mostly non-professionals, and the main parts in the film were taken by a Traveller family, the Maughans, with 11-year-old Winnie taking on the star role.
The feature, which is a blend of documentary and fictional drama, has already been selected to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival this autumn, where it will receive its North American Premiere.
Irish films have an excellent track record at Toronto with ‘Omagh’ and ‘The Magdalene Sisters’ both previously scooping awards at the festival.
