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4 February 1999 Edition

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Cinema: A film republicans should see

Bogwoman
Irish Film Centre

After doing the tour of the festivals this fine film with a republican theme is now on release in the Irish Film Centre in Dublin's Temple Bar. For all you republicans in Dublin who decry the Hollywood pap you have to put up with, I'd strongly urge you to get down to Temple Bar right away, fight your way through the stags and hens, and check it out.

Written and directed by Derry filmmaker Tom Collins, Bogwoman won the new directors award at the St Louis Film Festival and much praise elsewhere. It tells the story of a young woman, Maureen (Rachael Dowling), who moves from Donegal to Derry's Bogside in the late 50s. There, she builds a new life amid the poverty, pawn shops, bookies and working women. As the story unfold through the 1960s we also see the ever-present and oppressive RUC and the boiling cauldron that was Derry and the Six Counties.

Maureen marries Barry (Peter Mullan, who found fame in Ken Loach's My Name is Joe) who is an amiable but useless gambler. The film charts her struggles to build a life and family and her growing political awareness as she experiences life around her. In this way the film is as much a feminist as a republican story. It ends with Maureen on the barricades in the battle of the Bogside.

Bogwoman is a low-budget film which manages to hold its own despite all the constraints that a lack of money brings. It is a strong story, well-photographed, with few flaws. Get along and see it.

Bogwoman's run at the IFC has been extended beyond Friday 5 February.

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