The first feature-length documentary by Irish filmmaker Luke McManus, North Circular [+lee también:
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The award-winning music documentary travels the length of Dublin’s fabled North Circular Road, from the Phoenix Park to Dublin Port, meeting characters and hearing their personal stories, often told through music and song. The film celebrates the vibrant cultural heritage of the various neighbourhoods that the road connects, along with addressing the challenges of living along the famed thoroughfare.

Shot in black and white and in 4:3 Academy ratio, North Circular also engages with urgent contemporary issues, including the battle to save the legendary Cobblestone Pub, the centre of Dublin’s new folk and trad scene, from destruction at the hands of property developers.

In addition to including the characters’ heartfelt and intimate stories, the film touches upon narratives from Irish history, such as imperialism, revolution, incarceration, institutionalisation, the housing crisis and the struggle for gender equality. It also includes musical performances from artists who live along the North Circular, including Lisa O’Neill, John Francis Flynn, Séan Ó Túama, Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, Ian Lynch and Gemma Dunleavy. It features contributions from historians and writers who live in the area, including Ellen Rowley, Eamon Delaney, Paul Rouse and Catriona Crowe.

“North Circular is a personal film,” says the director. “I have lived just off the road itself for two decades and remain fascinated by its variety, by its contradictions, by the competing tensions that it finds within itself. There are numerous themes, characters and issues bubbling beneath the surface of the North Circular Road when you walk along it. A certain darkness at times, a celebratory energy at others: this single road encompasses so much diversity of human experience. This film will only ever be a glimpse of life in a couple of moments in the complex history of this multi-faceted place.”

North Circular was written by McManus, edited by John Murphy, and produced by McManus and Elaine Gallagher for Madhouse Films, with funding from the Reel Art programme of the Arts Council/An Comhairle Ealaíon. Its international sales are handled by Lightdox.

Check out our exclusive trailer below: