Award-Winning 'Peacefire' Screens On IFI

There's to be an exclusive chance to see a gritty, moving and bitterly funny account of one young man's experience of 'crime and punishment' on a housing estate in 1990s Northern Ireland.

Peacefire, the feature debut of Writer-Director Macdara Vallely, is to be screened at its Temple Bar facility in Dublin as part of The Irish Film institute (IFI) 'Ireland on Sunday' feature - a monthly programme of screenings which showcases new fiction and documentary works and provides a space for audiences to engage with the filmmakers.

The Producer of Peacefire Chris Martin will be in attendence for a post-screening Q&A session.

This is a rare chance for Dublin audiences to see this evocative drama; a deserved winner of the Best First Feature Award at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2008.

A young working class, joy-riding hoodlum has a chance encounter with a ruthless detective who turns him into an informer and a target for retribution by his father's old acquaintances in the IRA.

In the violent upheaval that follows, he must struggle with the intense loyalty he feels for his friends; the need to protect his mother from her tragic past; and the political ideals of a dead father.

Vallely was keen to infuse the film with an authentic vision of Northern Ireland and the film was shot in his hometown of Craigavon with a broadly local cast that includes former IRA men.

Capturing the authentic feel of the town was not without its problems however as a nearby dissident shooting and subsequent investigation led to rioting and several of the production team were held by police before being released without charge.

Vallely commented on the arrests: "That's the north of Ireland for you, at a certain point life and art become almost totally indistinguishable."

For more information visit: www.ifi.ie

(BMcN/BMcC)