The Irish feature film Black 47 directed by Lance Daly (Kisses, Life’s A Breeze) will go on nationwide release on Friday 7th September with previews scheduled for the previous weekend,31st August, 1st September and 2nd September.
The action film set during the Great Irish Famine stars Hugo Weaving (Hacksaw Ridge, The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix) and Jim Broadbent, (Oscar® winner for Iris) and the prolific Irish screen and stage actor Stephen Rea (The Crying Game, Michael Collins). Joining them are rising international actors James Frencheville (Animal Kingdom, The Drop) and Freddie Fox (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword) along with a strong young Irish cast including Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk, The Killing of a Sacred Deer), Moe Dunford (Michael Inside, Patrick’s Day) and Sarah Greene (Noble, Penny Dreadful).
It’s 1847 and Ireland is in the grip of the Great Famine that has ravaged the country for two long years. Feeney, a hardened Irish Ranger who has been fighting for the British Army abroad, abandons his post to return home and reunite with his family. He’s seen more than his share of horrors, but nothing prepares him for the famine’s hopeless destruction of his homeland that has brutalised his people and where there seems to be no law and order. He discovers his mother starved to death and his brother hanged by the brutal hand of the English. With little else to live for, he sets a destructive path to avenge his family.
Speaking about the cinema release, director Lance Daly said:
“I am delighted to work with Wildcard Distribution on the Irish cinema release of Black 47 this September. Given the singular importance of the Great Famine in Irish history, and that it has never been seen on our cinema screens before, our cast and crew felt a huge responsibility to make a film that was not only historically accurate and emotionally true, but also undeniably entertaining, so that the story could reach as many people as possible. I am immensely proud of the achievement of the entire team, both in front of and behind the camera, and I hope that Irish audiences will be as moved watching the movie as we were making it.”
Following its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February, the film opened both the Audi Dublin International Film Festival and Belfast Film Festival.
The screenplay was written by PJ Dillon (Rewind), Pierce Ryan (Standby), Eugene O’Brien (Eden) and Lance Daly. Produced by Macdara Kelleher for Fastnet Films with Tim O’Hair, Arcadiy Golubovich and Jonathan Loughran, Black 47 was financed by Primemeridian Entertainment, the Irish Film Board, the Luxembourg Film Fund, Wildcard Distribution, Altitude, BAI, TV3, Eurimages, Umedia, Samsa Films and Fastnet Films.