Documentary
The Road to God Knows Where
Alan Gilsenan · 1988
Synopsis
Young Irish people of the eighties, who stayed at home or left for the cities where they emigrated, speak of the unemployment, the departure and the political crisis that drove them there. The film, an essay on the state of the nation rather than a reportage, alternates their testimonies with stripped-down images, to music by U2, Aslan and the Pogues.
Context
The film was commissioned by the British channel Channel 4 and runs for fifty-three minutes. In Ireland it receives a Jacob award; on receiving it, the director reproaches the government for having abolished the film board, and the public industrial development agency then expresses its indignation at a film judged bleak. Gilsenan would later say that he had wanted to give his view of the country as a young man, not an indictment of it.
Who it is for
A fifty-three-minute documentary, in English, made up of testimonies and carried by the rock music of the time.
Prizes and reception
Jacob's Award in Ireland; its author's breakthrough and a provocative portrait of the Irish youth of its time.