BORSTAL BOY European Showcase

At an age when most boys are studying for exams, Brendan Behan was trying to change the world. BORSTAL BOY is the true story of this Irish writer and activist.

Sixteen-year-old Brendan Behan, an Irish Republican, is going on a bombing mission from Ireland to Liverpool during the Second World War. His mission is thwarted, however, when he is apprehended, charged and imprisoned in Borstal, a reform institution for young offenders in England. At Borstal, Brendan is forced to live with “the enemy,” a confrontation that reveals a deep inner conflict and self-examination.

Director Peter Sheridan grew up reading Behan’s stories and even met him briefly as a child. Behan so inspired him that he determined to someday make a film that would bring this amazing character back to life. Bathed in humor and pathos, BORSTAL BOY portrays with uncommon accuracy and resonance the motivations of a complicated and thoughtful man.