Feature film
Pigs
Cathal Black · 1984
Synopsis
During the recession of the eighties, Jimmy, a gay man separated from his wife, moves into a dilapidated house in central Dublin. Other outcasts join him there, including Tom, who has a mental disorder, and George, a former businessman, all of them unemployed and living on state benefits and hiding how far their lives have sunk. The arrival of drug dealers and prostitutes draws state surveillance and the intimidation of pitiless people down on the house.
Context
Written by Jimmy Brennan, who plays the lead, and produced by David Collins, the film is its director's first with a real budget, thanks to the newly created Irish film board; it was photographed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan. Critics were divided: it was judged too dark or not political enough, whereas its author saw it as a strange black opera. Three years later, the closure of the board by the new government left the filmmaker seven years without shooting.
Who it is for
An English-language film of one hour eighteen minutes, dark, with touches of black humour and a measure of fantasy.
Prizes and reception
The darkest view that Irish cinema had yet taken of the city, and one of the first to give a voice to its outcasts.
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