Starring Lara Belmont, Owen McDonnell, Matt Ryan and Sean McGinley.

Wild Decembers tells the story of Michael Bugler who inherits his uncle’s dilapidated mountainside farm, unaware of a centuries-old bitter feud with the neighbouring family, the Brenanns. Michael throws himself into renovating the farmhouse and putting the land back in to use. When he catches a glimpse of Breege Brennan through a window of the farmhouse which she shares with her older brother, Joseph, he’s struck by her ethereal beauty.

Michael and Breege romance stirs up the increasing animosity of Joseph, fuelled by landowner Lady Harkness reneging on an ancient land deal in favour of the newcomer. Joseph’s friend, The Crock, a sexually frustrated young man, who lusts after Breege, jealously perceives her feelings for Michael and starts playing a dangerous game with her emotions - one that ultimately leads to tragedy.

Adapted by renowned author Edna O’Brien from her novel, Wild Decembers, this is an interlocking story of land and love set in a rural community in contemporary Ireland. Starring Owen McDonnell (Single Handed, Conspiracy of Silence), Matt Ryan (Collision, The Tudors) and Lara Belmont (The War Zone, Henry VIII), the drama features a stellar cast of Irish actors from stage and screen including Sean McGinley, Hugh O’Connor, Jane Brennan and Pauline Cadell.

Directed by IFTA Award Winning director, Anthony Byrne (Single Handed, How About You) and produced for RTÉ by Touchpaper Television with Irish Co-producer Octagon Films, the 90 minute drama features a wealth of production talent including producer, Clare Alan, DOP, John Conroy, Production Designer, Derek Wallace and Costume Designer, Judith Williams.

“How About You” official site

Based on the short story by the best-selling novelist Maeve Binchy, “How About You” tells the story of Ellie, a young girl left in charge of a residential home over the Christmas period. Whilst most of the residents have left to spend the festive period with their families, four residents, known as the “hard core” remain. Rude, objectionable and often hilariously funny. In the Twilight of their years, they have become impossible to live with. In fact their behaviour has been so terrible that the home faces closure as potential residents are put off by their appalling antics.

Ellie would appear to be no match for the “hard core” but when she is pushed to the very limits, she decides to take them on. She succeeds in beating them at their own game and manages to show them the error of their ways. As well as changing them, she also realises that the “hard core” have changed her too in quite an unexpected way…

Reviews

“ “How About You” is one of three recent movies dealing with people spending the last years of their lives in residential homes, and all three were made by Directors much younger than their principal characters. “Away From Her” (Sarah Polley 28), “The Savages” (Tamara Jenkins 45) and “How About You”, by Anthony Byrne, the 32 year old Director of the stylised musical, “Short Order”. Crucially, the casting of Byrne’s nimbly Directed film is astute and pays dividends. Blending humanity and humour, the movie empathises with it’s aging cast and it would be invidious to single out any of them. ”
Michael Dwyer - The Irish Times

“ Producer Noel Pearson has a shrewd eye for emerging talent. Having launched Daniel Day-Lewis to stardom in “My Left foot” he’s now pulled off another coup with Hayley Atwell, a newcomer clearly on her way to stardom. She is put head to head with Vanessa Redgrave in a generation gap comedy set in a residential home. This is an amiable ensemble piece from Director Anthony Byrne, who showed his flair for musical cinema, Jaques Demy style with his innovative debut Short Order. ”
The Sunday Tribune - Ciaran Carty

(link to review) Sydney Morning Herald

“Short Order” official website

“Short Order” on YouTube

A little bit of life, love and wisdom come together over one night in the culinary underbelly where life is a buffet and everything is short order.

Short Order; - adj., Of or related with food that is easily and quickly prepared.

Food’ up! It’s another night on earth and up there in space, in the company of the satellites, the Radio World Broadcasting Network sends deep thoughts and musical moments through the misty blue of our delicate planet and eavesdrops on a magical night in the lives of our protagonists: Short Order Chefs, Masterchefs, Delivery People, working out their philosophies between bites of honest to goodness, Onions, Mustard Hot Dogs, Garlic studded, Lemon and Rum drenched prawns and house special Osso Bucco…

Will Paulo, the proprietor of The Mediterraneo, get his revenge on the infamous Bill Dodger, or will he fulfill his wish of literally making a meal of himself.

Will Fiona, a Short Order Chef at Ishmaels, - whose vivid imagination can transform the most dreary street into an all singing, all dancing musical revue as she wrestles with the vagaries of life - rekindle her passion for real cooking and will she redeem herself from the cul de sac of misery and confusion on whose end wall she daily bloodies and bruises her beautiful mind.

Will Catherine, the Ishmael’s delivery girl find meaning in the company of a Russian prostitute; or will the force of her wonderful honesty get her the chat show she so richly deserves.

Will the cigarrillo smoking Felix free Fiona from her frustration and seduce her back to the fancy kitchens of Shanks, his high street eaterie? Will the philosophical musings of short order chefs from around the world regarding pizza dough and female orgasms, omelettes and maidenhead larceny, hot dogs and sexual frustration in American women during the war years shed any light on God’s plan?

Join them in the hilarious, sensuous, violent, surreal, intoxicating, wondrous lives of the precious few, the heroes of the hot plate, the brave pulsing hearts who live and die by the frying pan.

Food’s up, my friends. Enjoy. Because Life is a Buffet…

Reviews

“ Directorial debut of exhilarating promise. The best thing about this film is that it defies categorisation and in no way conforms to what an Irish film is expected to be. A tour de force splurge of Technicolor abandon. More please Mr. Byrne. ”

Ciaran Carty “The Sunday Tribune”

“ A breathtakingly audacious first feature. ”

Tara Brady “Hot Press”

“ “Short Order” is the type of film we should be making in Ireland. It is a measure of Director Anthony Byrne’s near lunatic confidence. Wildly ambitious. Deserves to be seen. ”
Donald Clarke “Irish Times”

“ It was a lovely piece of work that came my way from a very good new young Director. He was very calm and confident, which I liked very much because once in a while you can find yourself working with a Director who you can tell is very tense and fussy. All the best Directors are calm.
That is a fact. ”
Vanessa Redgrave, in Interview with the “Irish Times”

“ You can’t refuse Anthony anything once you know him. This guy has an amazing talent, and if he remains focused with his feet planted firmly on the ground, he will go far, very far… ”
John Hurt, in Interview with “Brazi Film Magazine (France)”

“Meeting Che Guevara & the Man from Maybury Hill” on YouTube

During the Cuban missile crisis in 1963 a young woman from a small Irish town has a fascination with H.G Wells “War of the Worlds” and slowly her imagination and reality merge between the potentially real war of the worlds and Science Fiction, as she sets out to meet Che Guevara in a bid to save the world from the Martian Invasion.

Unbeknownst to her, Che Guevara has stopped over on the West of Ireland to refuel on a flight from Cuba to Algeria, and it is only a matter of time before she catches up with him to deliver a letter from the Man from Maybury Hill. The real and surreal become fantastically blurred as they slowly and surely draw their plans against us.

Reviews

“ The most accomplished and stylish short film since Damien O’Donnell’s “35 aside”. A Kafka-esque featurette staring John Hurt & Fiona O’Shaughnessy. The film is a classy and intelligent piece of Science fiction from Writer Director Anthony Byrne and Producer Brian Willis. As John Hurt put it, “This is a work of pure cinema”. Arriving for a screening of “Far from Heaven” which it precedes, would be a very bad idea indeed. ”
Tara Brady “Hot Press Magazine”

“ “Meeting Che Guevara & the Man from Maybury Hill” is an unusual little gem, elevated by haunting Cinematography. It is a stylish and imaginative chronicle of Guevara’s brief stopover in Dublin airport in the early sixties. If only all Irish cinema could be so imaginative. ”
Sophie Gorman “The Irish Independent”

“ Is there hope for Irish Film, well there is one straw to clutch at. The Todd Haynes movie “Far from Heaven” is preceded by a very promising Short film called “Meeting Che Guevara”. Written & Directed by Anthony Byrne, the movie is a pleasureably confusing fantasy. What gives optimism is that “Meeting Che Guevara” is rich in exactly the virtues that Pierce Brosnan’s “Evelyn” and Jim Sheridan’s “In America” lack: originality, intrigue, economy of storytelling and a touch of magic. Let’s hope that Sheridan et al recapture those qualities. ”
Chris Lowry “The Evening Herald”