Although based on a story set in rural Leitrim, a new film shot in County Galway is winning accolades, with its stunning landscapes a major factor.
That They May Face the Rising Sun, a film adaption of author John McGahern’s last novel, went on general release this week.
It won Best Film at last month’s IFTAs (Irish Film & Television Academy Awards ). It also won Best Irish Film at the Dublin International Film Festival earlier in March, and received critical praise at its world premiere at the London Film Festival last year.
Critics have commented on the quiet tranquillity of its locations. It is understood much of the film was shot around Gable Mountain, near Cornamona, in Co Galway, and on nearby Inishdoorus, a verdant peninsula which pokes into northern Lough Corrib like a long finger.
That They May Face the Rising Sun stars Barry Ward and Anna Bederke as couple Joe and Kate, who leave early Eighties London for the rural Ireland of Joe's childhood. After becoming deeply embedded in life in a lakeside community, the drama of one year in their lives and in those of the memorable characters around them unfolds through the rituals of work, play and the passing seasons as this enclosed world becomes an everywhere.
First published in 2002, That They May Face the Rising Sun is McGahern's final novel before his death in 2006 aged 71. The film’s director, Pat Collins, had previously on a documentary in 2005 about the best selling author, John McGahern: A Private World.
