Homecoming

(Sinéad O’Loughlin/2016/Ireland) 

A concise and accomplished ten minutes of film that make a comment on modern rural Ireland in so many ways. Mick has come back from Australia and is working his father’s farm when he encounters Aoife, an old friend, moving belongings from the family home before it’s sold. They share reminisces from their youth, glances, looks, small gestures and a mountain of things not being said between the things being said which make Homecoming a really forceful piece. Superbly acted by David Greene and Johanna O’Brien, they both emit the tensions and emotions of the script in condensed, palpable performances. The surrounding landscape of Wicklow with mist sodden fields, luminous grey skies and verdant green hedges as Mick goes about feeding sheep are like something out of an Austin Clarke poem. But the scenes of Mick farming also set the pace of the film and allow a natural, unhurried telling of the story by O’Loughlin. It’s great to see talent like this coming through in film in Ireland.

(3/5)