The Galway Film Fleadh is back with inspiring and entertaining films & events in Galway from July 11th to 16th!

The 35th Galway Film Fleadh will feature The Promise. Architect BV Doshi, World Shorts Three, Scrapper, My Lost Russian Mother, Long Distance Swimmer; Sara Mardini, Jericho Ridge at Pálás Screen 3 on the 14th.

Screening;
The Promise. Architect BV Doshi at 12pm / Irish Premiere
BV Doshi is a man of the present, but he is also a traditionally living Hindu. We witness his religious rituals in the family and visit Hindu temples and Islamic mosques that have shaped his ideas of city building and architecture. Doshi is a brilliant storyteller. His presence of mind, his humor and his wisdom create the image of a man from whom we can not only learn to build humanly, but from whom we can learn to be human.

World Shorts Three at 2pm
Our third and final world shorts selection is an in-competition showcase of work from a variety of nations. Featuring the world premieres of six engaging live-action dramas; Simo,Pylon, Blood like Water, Legs, Confessions, and Things Unheard Of (Serpêhatiyên Neqewimî)

Scrapper at 4pm / Irish Premiere
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – Winner, Scrapper from debut director, Charlotte Regan follows Georgie, a dreamy 12-year-old girl who lives happily alone in her London flat, filling it with magic. Out of nowhere, her estranged father turns up and forces her to confront reality. Father and daughter have to learn to cope with their own emotions in their new life together.

My Lost Russian Mother at 6pm / World Premiere
An intimate tale of secrets and lies, family and ethnicity and one young man’s odyssey from America to Russia, searching for his birth mother. Irish filmmaker Sam Jones, in his first feature documentary follows US citizen Gabe, trying to trace the mother he and his sister were taken from in childhood when they were adopted into America. Gabe arrives in Russia high on expectation. He wants to know who he is and the truth about his childhood. What he finds is not the loving parent he hoped for.
Post Show discussion will follow

Long Distance Swimmer; Sara Mardini at 8.15pm / Irish Premiere
One moment, champion Syrian swimmer Sara Mardini is Europe’s most celebrated refugee and humanitarian, the next she is a “criminal mastermind”. At 20, Sara was already famous. She fled Syria in 2015 with her younger sister Yusra. When their boat broke down as they were crossing the sea to Greece, Sara and Yusra, and two others jumped into the waves and swam for three-and-a-half hours in open water to stop their dinghy capsizing, saving the lives of everyone on board. Their journey made headlines around the world and is dramatized in a Netflix film called The Swimmers. Our story begins when the fictionalised drama ends. Sara has spent three years rescuing refugees on the same journey that made her famous, but is suddenly arrested in August 2018, accused by Greek authorities of running a criminal enterprise and charged with “international espionage and people smuggling”. If convicted, she faces up to 25 years in prison and the end of her humanitarian career. Banned from Lesbos and waiting for news of the trial, she lives a surreal existence in Berlin. Studying at a liberal arts college by day, escaping to techno clubs at night, she tries to reconnect with her family, while Yusra trains for the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, a dream the two sisters once shared. Shot over a period of three years, the film follows Sara’s fight for justice and journey of self-discovery, and it illustrates Europe’s biggest shift in the last decade: from being a place that welcomed refugees to an environment hostile to those who dare pull drowning people out of the sea.

Jericho Ridge at 10.30pm / European Premiere
Will Gilbey’s debut feature is a survivalist thriller that follows small-town Deputy Sheriff, Tabitha ‘Tabby’ Temple, who is called back from injury leave to cover the dispatch radio for the night. Alone in the station, Tabby witnesses a deadly gunfight break out between The Sheriff, the Chief Deputy and attackers via the police dash cams. A suspicious locksmith appears at the front door and is not who he says he is. Tabby’s nightmare begins as the Sheriff’s Office is besieged by murderous attackers. Tabby repels the initial attacks, locks the doors and calls for backup… but the closest State Police units are thirty minutes away. Things become more complicated when her teenage son, Monty, shows up to finish an argument which leaves Tabby to defend herself and her son. Isolated and outgunned, mother and son will have to do whatever it takes to survive.
Post Show discussion will follow

Photos courtesy of Galway Film Fleadh