After being thrown out of his foster home, teenager Christy (Danny Power) is forced to move in with his estranged half-brother, Shane (Diarmuid Noyes) in Knocknaheeny, Cork. Surprisingly he soon begins to feel a belonging to the place and reconnects to his past, but also starts to get involved with the wrong people.
Christy has had a long gestation. Writers Brendan Canty and Alan O’Gorman released a short film with the same title, directed by Canty, and also starring Power back in 2019. O’Gorman then developed into a feature length story, and with Canty back as director, it has reached our screens six years later.
I can see why the duo persisted as this is a touching and powerful social realist drama. It has a raw and realistic feel, thanks to cinematographer Colm Hogan and Canty really capturing the grimy reality of Cork for those struggling to make ends meet. It is not just a depressing story though, as there is a palpable sense of community and warm heartedness too.
Power and Noyes are terrific, especially in the final scene where they reconcile in a very believable way. Emma Willis is great as Stacey, Shane’s wife, making her complex feelings towards Christy moving in completely believable. I also enjoyed Cara Cullen’s performance as the compassionate Leona, who befriends Christy.
The story does have some familiar beats and some of the accents make the dialogue hard to understand for my tender English ears, but this is otherwise a very impressive effort by Canty and O’Gorman.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10