Colm Bairéad’s beautifully understated feature debut finds a young girl coming to terms with loss and the importance of family in rural Ireland.
Nine-year-old Cait (Catherine Clinch) is neglected by her pregnant mother, boorish father and louder siblings. At school, she feels ignored. But things change when her father takes her to live with in-laws for the summer.
Eibhlín (Carrie Crowley) and her farmer husband Seán (Andrew Bennett) take Cait in to alleviate her parent’s financial woes. At first, Cait feels a little intimidated by her new environment, though she soon finds freedom in this new world along with the attention she so desperately needs.
But even as this new home becomes an idyll for her, Cait senses that something is plaguing her new foster parents. There is unspoken grief that exists in the house, one that Eibhlín and Seán never discuss, but which Cait’s youthful curiosity begins to uncover.
“One of the most exquisitely realised films of the year”
In Irish Gaelic
with English subtitles
“The Quiet Girl is a masterpiece…
where else could you find this kind of experience but at the cinema?”
