08/07/2009

After the what’s-wrong-with-this-family dynamics of Greek Un certain regard entry Dogtooth [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Yorgos Lanthimos
film profile] in Cannes, the strange goings-on in an Irish family are up for cinematic inspection in Eamon. The feature debut of writer-director Margaret Corkery had its international premiere in the Forum of the Independents section of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, currently underway.

Eamon is the name of a six-year-old rascal who is almost entirely devoted to his mother, the capricious Grace. The boy’s father, Daniel, is unable to come between the couple, to the point where Eamon and Grace sleep together in the master bedroom while Daniel has to make do with the couch.

Because of money problems, they decide to spend Eamon’s school holidays in a cottage on the coast owned by Eamon’s grandmother, rather than in Spain, where Grace thinks they deserve to be.

The unusual occurrences during that week are the motor of Eamon, which, however, like Dogtooth, leaves much to the imagination of the viewer. The reasoning behind many of the characters’ decisions remains up in the air.

Corkery mixes a naturalistic approach on a visual level with an impressionistic approach on the narrative level, a clear disconnect that brings a slight but disturbing undercurrent to the proceedings. Use of music is minimal and the little dialogue there is, is mainly functional.

Seamus Byrne produced the feature for Zanita Films, for which Corkery has already made several commercials and television dramas.