The Cry of Granuaile

“The Cry of Granuaile” – 82 mins: Ireland: 2022 

A grieving American filmmaker (Dale Dickey) and her Irish assistant (Judith Roddy) tour the west of Ireland, researching a film about Granuaile, the legendary 16th century rebel and ‘pirate queen’. The women develop an uneasy intimacy as they journey towards a remote Atlantic Island, where boundaries begin to blur between past and present, myth and history, dream and reality, presenting a wide-eyed American beguiled by Ireland. 

Filmed on granular 16mm with a swoony orchestral score, the film is playful but assured in its homage to an earlier cinema aesthetic while the film’s locations provide a majestic backdrop to the action. 

“The Cry of Granuaile’  is Foreman’s third feature film following on from his debut film ‘Out of Here’ (2013) and his award winning Documentary Film “The Image You Missed”. 

The Cry of Granuaile is the first feature funded through the Irish Arts Council’s Authored Works initiative in which the Irish Film Institute are Exhibition Partners.

About The Filmmaker Dónal Foreman: 

Dónal Foreman (born Dublin, 1985) is an Irish filmmaker living between New York City and Dublin. He has been making films since he was 11 years old. Since then, he has written, directed, edited and co-produced three feature films and dozens of shorts (retrospectives of which have been curated by the Irish Film Institute and Cork Film Centre.

The Irish Times has called him “one of Ireland’ most imaginative cinematic talents”, and his features have been praised in the Hollywood Reporter, Sight & Sound, the Guardian, Film Comment and Filmmaker Magazine.

At age 17, he won the title of Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year. He has been nominated twice for the Irish Film & TV Academy Awards – for the Rising Star Award in 2014 and for Best Documentary in 2020 – and presented with the Discovery Award from the Dublin Film Critics Circle in 2014. His second feature, The Image You Missed, premiered at Rotterdam and has gone on to screen at over 40 festivals across 20 countries including Edinburgh, CPH:DOX and the Viennale, winning nine awards including the Grand Jury Prize at BAFICI, and receiving theatrical releases in Ireland, the UK, the US, Greece and Mexico. The Irish Times recently declared it one of the 50 best Irish films ever made. 

What the Press say about Foreman’s film “The Cry of Granuaile”  

“With three features to his credit … Donal Foreman is establishing himself as one of Ireland’s most imaginative cinematic talents. … The Cry of Granuaile is an entirely unique addition to the burgeoning Grace canon.” Tara Brady, The Irish Times.

“Sailing into town on a wave of rave reviews, The Cry Of Granuaile is just the type of offering film lovers worry aren’t been made anymore. That Ireland should be producing films such as this and the superlative The Quiet Girl reiterates Martin Scorsese’s Marvel-mauling belief that bigger is rarely better.” Paul Byrne, Greystones Guide

“The director follows up his innovative drama Out of Here and his powerful documentary The Image You Missed with an intellectually knotty piece entitled The Cry of Granuaile…  Foreman ingeniously works left-field techniques in with more conventional drama as he takes us towards an encounter with sometimes puzzled locals in Granuaile’s native Mayo.” Donald Clarke, The Irish Times