'Kings' On General Release In Northern Ireland

Ireland's Official Submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 80th Annual Academy Awards (Oscars) has gone on general release this weekend.
Following a sell-out screening at the Foyle Film Festival last weekend, Kings - which is in Irish - is now on general release and will be shown in the Movie House Dublin Road, Belfast, the Omniplex in Derry and Omniplex in Newry.
Director and screenwriter Tom Collins (Bogwoman; Teenage Kicks) has been plied with accolades for Kings, including the SDGI (Screen Directors’ Guild of Ireland) Directors’ Finders Series award, numerous prestigious festival awards including selection for Toronto, as well as the Academy Awards submission.
Starring Colm Meaney (Layer Cake; Intermission; Star Trek; The Commitments) in a mesmerising performance and with a stunning ensemble cast including Donal O’Kelly, Brendan Conroy and newcomer Sean O’Meallaigh, the film tells the story of a group of young men in the 70s, who left Ireland bound for London, filled with ambition for a better life in a place where they could be kings.
Thirty years have passed when they meet again. Their youngest friend, Jackie has died. For some of them those 30 years have been hard. Their muscle has been spent, their hopes dashed on the roads and building sites of Britain, to be replaced with a sense of hopeless disaffection.
As the truth about Jackie’s death is uncovered, and long-held secrets are laid bare, the men discover that ultimately it is your friends who break your heart - and your friends who can save it.
The film was shot in Belfast, London and Dublin with finance from Northern Ireland Screen, the Irish Film Board, the Broadcast Commission of Ireland and TG4 and was the first feature to receive funding from the Irish Language Broadcast Fund.
(DS)