“Kings”

...de Hot Press:

The widely acclaimed Irish-language feature film Kings (pictured) has been nominated in a remarkable 14 categories in the IFTA Awards 2008.

The film, directed by Tom Collins and produced by Jackie Larkin of Newgrange Pictures, heads the list of nominees, which was announced today. The awards ceremony will take place on Sunday February 17 in the Gaiety Theatre and will be broadcast "as live" on RTE at 9.30pm.

…kaj de la Boston Globe:

One of the more striking aspects of "Kings" is that its characters speak primarily in Irish Gaelic - the film is subtitled in English - and Jap especially uses the language as a defiant reminder of who he is and who his friends should be. Joe, the first to leave Connemara in their youth, has no time for such nonsense, and the film shares his opinion that nostalgia is delusion even as it revels in the hard consonants and fluid vowels of the ancient tongue.

It's the language of home, but where exactly is home? The London where they live? The Ireland of their memories? Ireland as it exists in 2007? The five friends stake out different points on the graph, with much talk of returning to Connemara and a general aversion to doing just that.