Saturday, July 30, 2011

New film will portray priests in positive light

A new film by the creators of The Guard will portray priests in a positive light according to the Irish director.

Calvary, created by John Michael McDonagh, will feature a priest living in Easkey, Co. Sligo who is trying to do good work but the locals are against him.

''I was thinking what would crass filmmakers do now, after the Ryan Report and all that? They'd make a film about paedophile priests,'' Mr McDonagh said. 

He has said he aims to create a more balanced approach with Calvary.

Mr McDonagh's most-recent film, The Guard, is a black comedy starring Brendan Gleeson about Boyle, a corrupt garda who is living in a Galway town and is forced to do some work when an FBI agent (Don Cheadle) arrives to investigate a drug-smuggling ring.

Mr McDonagh created the good priest character in Calvary as a counter to Garda Boyle but plans to retain some of The Guard's black humour.

''It's quite difficult to write a good film about a good person. It's much easier to write about somebody who's going to say confrontational things all the time,'' he said.

''Everyone in the village is sort of against him, so he's a good man but the characters around him will be darker so instead of him propelling the narrative, it will be him responding to other people.''

Mr McDonagh said he chose Easkey as a setting so the film has a mythic feel.

''If it's done properly, it'll have a spiritual meaning to it. I'm not religious but I like films that try to elevate the human spirit,'' he said.

A production date for Calvary has not yet been confirmed but Mr Gleeson has signed up to portray the priest and it will have a budget of €6m-€7m.