The best movie we saw on the 2023 film festival circuit was director
Pat Collins' That They May Face the Rising Sun. Co-written by Eamon Little and adapted from the novel
by John McGahern, the film takes place in a small village in the
rural Ireland of the 1980s. There we find Joe and Kate Ruttledge (Barry Ward and Anna Bederke), a young couple who have relocated from London, and
the various friends and acquaintances that make up their tight knit
community.
The film also stars Philip Dolan, Lalor Roddy, Sean McGinley and
Brendan Conroy.
That They May Face the Rising Sun is in UK/ROI cinemas in
2024.
Check out the first trailer below and
read our review here.
The official synopsis reads:
Capturing a year in the life of a rural, lakeside community in Ireland in the 1970’s, That They May Face The Rising Sun is an adaptation of the final novel from John McGahern, one of Ireland’s greatest novelists. Joe and Kate Ruttledge have returned from London to live and work among the small, close-knit community near to where Joe grew up. Now deeply embedded in life around the lake, the drama of a year in their lives and those of the memorable characters around them unfolds through the rituals of work, play and the passing seasons as this enclosed world becomes an everywhere.