Anyone heading to Derry this week for Foyle Film Festival’s screening of new Irish film Aontas (translates as ‘union’) might be surprised to find a very unfamiliar-looking Brid Brennan.
For a start, part of her garb (think well-worn charity shop fleece) is a balaclava which is quite handy for the make-up department – but, then, she doesn’t really wear any of that in the film, anyway.
Dressing down for the role of Cáit in what has been described as a “twisty little back-pedalling Irish-language noir”, has been a liberation of sorts for the acclaimed Belfast-born actress who has worked with everyone from Meryl Streep (Dancing at Lughnasa) and Hugh Grant (Florence Foster Jenkins) to a young Kenneth Brannagh in the groundbreaking Billy Plays in filmed in Belfast in the early 1980s.
“There is a sense of the anarchic in Cáit and there was a lot of fun to be had with that,” says Brennan, who brushed up on her “schoolgirl Irish” for the against-type role filmed over several weeks in Glenarm, Co Antrim, last year.
“I wore a balaclava at times and that was also a source of great fun, but I have to say, balaclavas are almost impossible to work with. You go to put them back on – always considering continuity of filming - but every time you put them on for another shot, they look different. Your face is distorted in a slightly different way…”
Aontas has reawakened my love for Irish
— Brid Brennan
Balaclavas, however, are a necessary part of ‘wardrobe’ when robbing a rural credit union, as Brennan’s character does - with two female accomplices (Carrie Crowley and Eva Jane Gaffney) - in the heist-gone-wrong drama from writer-director Damian McCann and co-writer, Sarah Gordon.
An exploration of grief and the impact of past choices, Aontas is also, ventures Brennan, a thriller generously infused with humour.
“Damian and Sarah have infused it with so much humour that it lifts the tragic nature of the actual story,” says the London-based actress who turned 70 this year.“
In fact, I was in packed house last night for the London Irish Film Festival and it was very gratifying to hear laughter and that people were picking up on the humour.”
The storytelling itself is a type of unravelling – starting with the heist and travelling back in time to unpick events that led to this climactic point.
“Damian has been quite daring and bold with his deconstruction of the storytelling,” explains Brennan, who studied English and French at Queen’s University, Belfast, before breaking into acting through the Dublin theatre scene in the 1970s.
“My character has a tragic event happen in her past that has enormous repercussions and she is a bit of a pariah, on the outside of society. I found myself really empathising with her story and I find her sad in the sense that there is usually a reason why people are the way they are.
“You feel she has a desperation for connection, so she ends up in this heist, but she doesn’t realise the complexity of what is happening and then there is a double bluff…I’m not revealing any more; it’s all part of wonderful storytelling.”
Even with an illustrious career on stage and screen (she won a Tony Award for her role in Brian Friel’s stage play, Dancing at Lughnasa and later picked up an Irish Film and Television Award for the same role in the film version with Meryl Streep), Brennan still feels drawn back to artistic, low-budget films, particularly those filmed in the Irish language.
This latest – and not only due to balaclavas – has been an “exhilarating adventure” and is her second Irish language film courtesy of McCann with whom she also collaborated on 2021 mystery/drama, Doineann (‘stormy weather’).
“This is certainly an adventure that I never thought I would have,” she muses. “It has been a true adventure in Irish language films and has come out of the blue, really. Truthfully, it has been daunting, the idea of acting roles in Irish, but ultimately, I have found it so exhilarating and I’m so grateful for the amazing support from my fellow actors.
“Basically, I enjoyed the first one so much that I felt compelled to go back and do it all again with Aontas which has no English-speaking roles at all. Certainly, it has reawakened my love for Irish. I am not fluent, to my shame, but I had a great coach in Orla [Ni Chearnaigh], one of the producers, and I now want to take myself off to Donegal or somewhere and do an intensive language course.”
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The award-winning Shadow Dancer actress is also determined to learn Italian to a high level of fluency and had the opportunity to practise a little when in Rome earlier this year to shoot scenes in a new film directed by Dutch filmmaker, Anton Corbijn.
“This is what I always imagined,” she says, sounding wistful, “you know, combining my love for travel with my love for filmmaking. It was just gorgeous to get to Rome and work there for a few days and then spend time absorbing the city as a tourist.”
On top of travel and languages, she has a list of other interests including yoga, walking and gardening (in her London allotment) but when “little adventures” such as Aontas come calling, she finds it hard to say, ‘no’.
She is currently filming a new televised series of the Harry Potter books which she read to both her sons when younger – “I know a bit about that world” - playing the matron of the ‘Hogwarts’ infirmary and then she flies home to the Antrim coast to film another ‘short’.
“I think at the age of 70 the roles for women often become richer, deeper, ever more fascinating, so I am not thinking of retirement just yet,” she reflects.
“Every time I think about it, I get drawn back to something else that I just feel compelled to do. It is difficult to pick out a favourite, but I really enjoyed doing two Irish films - Maeve and Anne Devlin - when I was just starting out, with Irish filmmaker, Pat Murphy.
“Both were feminist films and it was my introduction to being close to the heart of the film – small crew, low budget, made-on-the-streets, nicely shot… Pat was quite groundbreaking in her work and it was a rare thing to have a film from a woman’s perspective like that.”
After all these years, does she still find it difficult to watch herself back on screen? “Yes,” comes the quick reply, “I do find that difficult. I watch myself and I get this feeling of: ‘I don’t know who this woman is….she’s nothing to do with me’ or I think, ‘Oh, my word, how did I do that?’
“I attended the Dinard Film Festival in Brittany at the end of September for Aontas – I was already travelling in Europe with my husband on an Interrail ticket - and I saw an email that there was going to be a red carpet.
“There was a moment of panic because I didn’t think I would be ready for a red carpet. My husband said: ‘Just wear your balaclava’. I had to laugh - no need for hair or make-up, but it’s a piece that somehow I don’t think I’ll be wearing again.”
:: Aontas, which has won awards for Best Feature at San Diego and Manchester Film Festivals, will be screened at the Nerve Centre, Derry, on November 29 as part of Foyle Film Festival The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Damian McCann and Sarah Gordon. Foylefilmfestival.org
What’s on at this year’s Foyle Film Festival
In it’s 38th year, Foyle Film Festival continues until Sunday, November 30.
Highlights include a mix of Irish premieres, world cinema, immersive screenings and live events in an extended programme built around the theme of discovery.
Irish storytelling takes centre stage with Saipan, a reimagining of the infamous Roy Keane/Mick McCarthy World Cup clash; Christy, the Galway Film Fleadh winner from Alan O’Gorman; and Aontas which follows three unlikely thieves who rob a rural Irish Credit Union.
Audiences can also preview screenings of Cannes and Venice favourites, including, winner of the Palm D’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, It Was Just An Accident (November 27 at the Brunswick Moviebowl) from Iranian auteur, Jafar Panahi.
At the other end of the cinematic scale, popular Hollywood favourites have also been listed, with a special screening of a digitally enhanced Sunset Boulevard showing on November 30 at the Nerve Centre.
Heart-warming comedy-drama, Rental Family - writer-director Hikari’s filmic love letter to the city of Tokyo - will be showing at the Brunswick Movie Bowl, on November 30 in a closing night gala.
For these and all listings, visit www.foylefilmfestival.org