2020
95’
Colour
İreland
A black comedy about a prodigal son returning to his hometown to seek salvation for his sins. Jimmy is a nihilist with a hilariously bleak view on life. He carries a black leather doctor’s bag around with him containing the rope he plans to hang himself with. Jimmy is filled with guilt and shame and has let his inner demons take over.
At home his brother, Damien, has been stuck looking after their sick father for seven years. He is consumed with bitterness and self-righteousness at Jimmy’s disappearance. As soon as Jimmy visits his ailing father, he dies. The second his father breaths his last, the thunder rumbles and the rain starts to pour. And there is a condition in the will… that his father cannot be buried on a wet day. Jimmy is stuck in his hometown until the rain stops.
This comedy drama celebrates the caustic black wit of Ireland. Themes of loneliness, homecoming, anger, dejection, faith, suicide and salvation are portrayed in an unflinching, unsentimental, and darkly comic manner.
Philip Doherty is a writer/director from Cavan Town. He directed the shorts, The Diamond Boutique (winner of the Judges’ and Audience Awards at the Clones Film Festival), and The Goatee Uprising. Redemption of a Rogue is his debut feature. In theatre, Philip has written and directed plays for his company, The Gonzo Theatre, including Pilgrim, The Birthday Man, and The Circus of Perseverance, which all premiered at the Dublin Fringe Festival. He is currently artistic director of Fíbín theatre in Galway, where he premiered his play, Debt.