EUFF 2022: Redemption of a Rogue

Ireland | Philip Doherty | 2020 | 95 min

They say you can’t go home again. Jimmy (Aaron Monaghan) begs to differ. In this hilarious black comedy, the proverbial prodigal son seeks salvation for his sins. Jimmy has a bleak view of life, to say the least; inside his bag is the rope with which he plans to hang himself. Returning to the austere beauty of Ballylough to say goodbye to his family, he finds that his brother Damien, after caring for their sick father for seven years, is bitter about Jimmy’s long-postponed reappearance. As if a sign from heaven, Jimmy’s return causes the thunder to rumble and the rain to pour. For reasons outlined in his father’s unconventional will, Jimmy is stuck in his hometown until the seemingly endless storms stop. In this Irish Groundhog Day purgatory, days roll into weeks as Jimmy seeks absolution and even stumbles upon love. The Irish Examiner calls the film “the funniest Irish movie in a generation.”

“Philip Doherty’s grim Ulster comedy—winner of best Irish film at last year’s Galway Film Fleadh—packs a lot of mucky ambition into its 93 minutes … Here is a film clawed up from the damp soil and smeared imaginatively across the screen.” Donald Clarke, The Irish Times