Daniel Nolan on the Jameson Dublin Film Festival feature
Out of Here is the debut feature-length from promising young Irish director Donal Foreman. It follows its protagonist, Ciarán (played by What Richard Did’s Fionn Walton), as he attempts to settle back into Dublin after dropping out of college and spending a year traveling. The film is loosely plotted and paced, treatment giving it a natural atmosphere often aspired to and rarely achieved. While Foreman has apparently been working on the project since the mid-‘00s, the issues on which it focuses on have become increasingly prevalent in the intervening years (Foreman himself has relocated to New York, where his next film will be set – though with Irish characters.)
The film is one of the most thoughtful and interesting evocations of the experience of growing up in Dublin in recent years, and should be highly relatable to a young Irish audience. However, Foreman captures a sense of detachment and frustration that should be familiar to a more widespread section of the film-going public. There is a warm and natural humour between the characters throughout, which also alludes to a sadness at the inability to communicate in more directly emotional terms. The impressively natural, spontaneous feel of the acting allows for the film’s themes to be explored in a subtly effective manner.
As with most Irish cinema, Out of Here will be highly reliant on word-of-mouth to reach a substantial audience. It is one of the more impressive Irish debuts of recent years and deserves to achieve that.
