After playing to audiences all over the world, The Silver Branch has come home to Ireland and begun a nationwide tour. We’ve received some high praise from media reviewers in recent days which have varied from praiseworthy to leaving us teary-eyed with the very high praise … míle buíochas.
RTÉ Film review: THE SILVER BRANCH: absorbing and deserving of garlands
“The Silver Branch is an absorbing, brilliant film that should be honoured everywhere prizes are given, for delving delicately and drinking deep at the well of one man’s story, one family’s joy and heartbreak.”
SUNDAY INDEPENDENT “A breath-taking cinematic essay on Ireland’s natural beauty.
Accompanying this visual beauty are the thoughtful, sometimes hypnotic poems and musings of McCormack, which emphasise the importance of nature and our need to embrace simplicity and beauty in modern life.
Ireland has rarely been captured onscreen with such striking artistry.”
HOTPRESS “So potent is the continuous conversation Costello’s film has with its environment that a meditative quality takes hold that is as rich and rare as the Burren itself. What begins as just a sumptuous piece of local filmmaking starts to ring with a universal candour.”
SCANNÁN “Though it is her first feature documentary, Costello’s assuredness behind the camera would convince otherwise. From spectacular imagery of indigenous wildlife to ponderous shots of the ragged landscape, it’s hard to overstate how good this film looks. Using natural light and working intimately with some of the people who inhabit the area, The Burren looks al-most alien in it’s beauty and wonder. It helps too that as a narrator Patrick McCormack has an inherent knack for storytelling and his gravelly tones lend some reflection to quieter moments of Costello’s cinematography.
The Silver Branch is an uplifting look at rural life, but there are moments of sadness and melancholy woven into the narrative. Rather than stain the story though, these help to tie it all together as a reflective drama on character and soul and how we are connected to the places each of us call home.”
SUNDAY BUSINESS POST “A sensitive, gorgeously-made film.”
FILM IRELAND:
“Katrina Costello’s The Silver Branch is plainly gorgeous. What elevates this film, however, is its extraordinary ability to pair its visuals with Patrick McCormack’s narration.
The film’s poetry, visuals, and score combine to show us how sitting at the side of a dying cow can help us to discern some part of our uncertain place in this massive “web” and how that discernment informs how we interact with our landscape. In the mists that so frequently border sweeping shots of the farm, Costello and McCormack let us see our own ephemerality as well as the responsibility placed on us by our own temporary nature.
That this film illustrates this reciprocity so well does it credit and, due to this achievement, the Irish film community should anticipate whatever Costello produces next.”
TotallyDublin.ie
“The Silver Branch is brilliantly layered and executed, a master class in documentary film making and a deep breath of fresh country air that everybody needs to take in.”
DUBLIN INQUIRER
“It’s impossible to resist the charms of The Silver Branch, to get caught up in his world, to feel the weight of his struggles and the relief of his triumphs. Enthralling from beginning to end.”
NO MORE WORKHORSE Film Review
“Costello has created a documentary worthy of McCormack who is a quiet, great man. The clamour and strains that surrounds much of urban and indeed rural life is called into question. McCormack found in a remote part of County Clare an existential serenity which fortuitously for him was his birthplace. Costello has provided a worthy celebration of this unsung hero.”
2018 Tour – New dates added
Town Hall Theatre, Galway Wed Oct 3rd 8PM
IFI, Dublin: Fri Oct 5th to Thursday 11th
Moat Theatre, Naas: Sun Oct 14th 7pm
Glór, Ennis: Sat Oct 20th 8pm
St. John’s Theatre, Listowel: Tue Oct 23rd 8pm
Siamsa Tíre, Tralee: Wed Oct 24th 8pm
Pot Duggan’s Ennistymon SAT, NOV 17 AT 7:30 PM (Fundraiser for Mully Blackwell)
Presentation Centre Enniscorthy Sat Nov 24th 8pm
Triskel Arts Centre, Cork Mon Nov 26th 4 nights
Irish Film Institute Dublin Friday Dec 21st to New Year’s Eve (excl Dec 25th and 26th)