09/06/2005

Lenny Abrahamson’s Irish film Adam & Paul released last Friday in the UK through Guerilla Films, has received glowing reviews from the major UK newspapers such as the Independent, The Times, The Express and The Mail, as well as film magazines Sight and Sound and Uncut and entertainment magazine Time Out. BBC2’s The Culture Show chose Adam & Paul as the film highlight of the week and newspaper The Telegraph said: "It’s the strongest, funniest, most despairing drug-themed movie… since Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting."

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"For a small Irish film to get such amazing reviews from the UK critics is a testament to the talent of everybody involved with Adam & Paul," said Irish Film Board’s Head of Marketing Moira Horgan.
The debut film of Abrahamson was a box office hit when released by Abbey Films in Ireland last year, and to date, it has scooped a number of awards including Best Director at the 2004 Irish Film & TV Awards and Best Film and Critics Award at the Sofia International Film Festival last March. Written by Ireland’s Shooting Star Mark O’Halloran who also stars alongside Tom Murphy, the film was produced by Jonny Speers with Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe (Element Films) as executive producers.
Gary Phillips who handles international sales on the film for UK sales company Moviehouse Entertainment, told Cineuropa the film is being negotiated for several territories: "it is a great but tough movie, so it still takes a tough person to release it." But Guerilla Films, specialised in UK and Irish films has taken that risk, releasing it on 7 screens across the UK. The figures for the opening weekend were soft (£7,365 gross - €11,000), but hopefully the word of mouth, carried by UK critics, will work on the film’s favour.