Mayo film starring Michael Harding focuses on rural isolation

HOW do two Mayo men with no big background in filmmaking produce a film that’s being screened at a film festival in Canada? Not just any film festival either.
On Friday, September 27, at 6pm, Ruaidhrí Hallinan and Eamonn Keane’s film, ‘Where The Old Man Lives’, will have its world premiere at the Edmonton Film Festival in Canada.
“It’s a big premiere because the last Irish film to win there went on to an Oscar and that was ‘The Irish Goodbye’,” explains Ruaidhrí.
A pretty big deal so. But Ruaidhrí and Eamonn are no overnight success.
While still relatively new to screenwriting, Ruaidhrí made a name for himself last year when his comedy short ‘Remote Strutting’ was awarded an Ardán & RTÉ Short Film Commission.
Produced by Westport-based company Western Front Studios, the film premiered at this year’s Galway Film Fleadh and has been selected for several film festivals, as well as being shortlisted for Best European Short Film.
Ruaidhrí has joined forces with Eamonn, a native of Kilmaine, for his latest work, which deals with the theme of rural isolation.
Starring renowned author and playwright Michael Harding and Ruth McCabe (a star of ‘My Left Foot’, ‘The Field’ and ‘The Snapper’), ‘Where The Old Man Lives’ tells the story of Michael, an elderly farmer who lives alone in rural Ireland.
“This is a film we really wanted to make,” remarks Ruaidhrí, whose path into filmmaking was a somewhat unlikely one.

Circuitous route
To many Mayo folk, Ruaidhrí would be better recognised on the side of a football field than in a director’s chair.
A long-time member of Ballintubber GAA Club, the Carnacon native was a statistician with the Mayo team for many years and works in IT by day.
He moved into coaching after hanging up his boots, winning two county titles with his home club in 2018 and 2019.
Throughout that time, Ruairdhri was rarely without his trusty iPad counting turnovers, attacks, catches and kick-passes.
These days, he’s coaching with Shrule-Glencorrib, but spends more time with the notepad than the iPad.
“The interest in films was kind of always there but I suppose it was an avenue to pursue some creative writing is what I use the medium for,” Ruaidhrí tells The Mayo News.
“I always had an interest in creative writing myself. I didn’t really show anything. I always appreciated it. Dad (Seán Hallinan) would have been into writing poetry and stuff down the years, he’s been in national publications and Sunday Miscellany and stuff like that so I always had an appreciation for the arts in that respect.”
Confined to remote working and frozen out of football during lockdown, Ruaidhrí discovered screenplay format during his newfound spare time.
“I just got it straight away,” he says. “I could just see a film unfold in front of me as I was reading scripts, so I just had a crack at it. It was around then that I met Eamonn Keane, because our two daughters are in the same pre-school together, and we just got chatting a few times.”
By 2021, these two Mayo men were writing scripts and exchanging ideas on a regular basis.
Though crunching numbers is second nature to Ruaidhrí, he insists that statistics and scriptwriting are not that far removed from each other.
“Even in a script and a story and a plot there’s a lot of structure to it. You’d be shocked at how much structure is in a story that needs to make sense to an audience. So you have to think logically and physically about things as well when you’re writing in terms of screenwriting,” he explains.
“It’s not just writing a fairytale. I think the way I’d be analytical about things and breaking down stories and characters helps in that sense. That’s an area [where] a lot of writers might struggle [but] I’d actually kind of excel in. That part makes sense to me. It probably is an unusual pivot, I’d say, but why not? I like this and I pursued it and a couple of things started to work out for me. I’m glad I took the plunge.”
His screenwriting partner is in the game a bit longer, founding his first production company back in 2015.
But Eamonn Keane and Ruaidhrí Hallinan both swear by one rule: write what you know.
With both men hailing from rural Ireland, ‘Where The Old Man Lives’ was a film just waiting to be made.

Crowd-funding campaign
Thanks to independent production company, Maglite Films, and a well-supported crowd-funding campaign, that wait came to an end in April when post-production concluded after a spend of just €30,000.
“There’s lots of high profile cases about this type of stuff and I suppose there was a mixture of many different true stories blended together to shine a light on people who are living in isolation in rural areas or living in fear of intrusion,” Eamonn tells The Mayo News.
Over 15,000 people will flock to the Edmonton Film Festival, which screens over 160 films.
Ruaidhrí is confident that their picture will resonate with the locals.
“A lot of second/third-generation Newfoundlanders would be living in Edmonton so they have quite a rural setup up there as well and quite an identification of living rurally so we have high hopes for that one,” says Ruaidhrí.
Directed by Sonya O’Donoghue, with Niall O’Connor as Director of Photography, and IFTA-winning Sarah Lynch as film composer, ‘Where The Old Man Lives’ was filmed in four locations across Gort, Oranmore and Clarinbridge in Co Galway.
Featuring a 12-strong cast, with up to 100 extras (including Head of Sport at The Mayo News, Michael Gallagher), the film carries a production value that almost rivals that of a feature film.
“In a sense, it’s an advocacy piece for people living on their own in rural isolation and rural crime and stuff like that. If something good comes out of that then all the better and who knows, maybe this is a project that could be taken further in the future. We don’t know.”
Eamonn comments: “That’s probably the next step for the film to make a feature film version of it.” Watch this space then.