SONG FOR A RAGGY BOY European Showcase

Director/screenwriter Aisling Walsh’s extraordinary film is based on Patrick Galvin’s autobiographical book, Song for a Raggy Boy. The world continues to be shocked by the revelations of the offenses committed by Catholic priests, this well-timed film is filled with emotional urgency and raw humiliation.

This is the story of non-clergy teacher, William Franklin (Aiden Quinn), who is hired at a Catholic reformatory school near a small village in Ireland. Newly widowed, the teacher tries to bring literacy and a love of the written word into the lives of the young boys, especially one of his most gifted students Liam. William finds himself clashing with the violent (and/or sexually deviant) monks head up by Brother John who rule absolute over the students with steel hands, forcing them to live by arbitrary rules.

It’s the superb acting from Quinn and the young students that drives the intensity of mood and atmosphere to carry the film into the realm of cinematic catharsis in this deeply satisfying film of redemption and survival.