''Cré na Cille'' is a 2007

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...

film directed by Robert Quinn. It is an adaptation of Máirtín ÓCadhain's 1949 novel, . It was released outside Ireland under the English title ''Graveyard Clay''.

Production

was filmed in various locations in

Connemara Connemara ( ; ) is a region on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of western County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The area has a strong association with traditional Irish culture and contains much of the Connacht Irish-speaking Gaeltacht, ...

County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...

in 2006 to commemorate the centenary of ÓCadhain's birth. It was filmed with

HDCAM HDCAM is a high-definition video digital recording videocassette version of Digital Betacam introduced in 1997 that uses an 8-bit discrete cosine transform (DCT) compressed 3:1:1 recording, in 1080i-compatible down-sampled resolution of 144 ...

in a 2.35:1

aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...

and with

Dolby Digital Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3 (see below), is the name for a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, it is lossy compression (except for Dolby Tr ...

sound.

Plot

In a graveyard in Connemara, as the members of a small community die, their spirits linger on in the grave and can speak to each other.

Release

premiered in

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

in December 2006. It screened at the 2007

Shanghai International Film Festival The Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF, , French: ''Festival international du film de Shanghai'') is the largest film festival in Asia and China's longest-running international cinema event. The first festival was established in Octobe ...

(shortlisted for the Jin Jue Award) and at the Irish Film Festival, Boston. won an award for Outstanding Services to the Irish Language at the 2007 Aisling Awards. It premiered on television on

TG4 TG4 (; , ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television channel. It launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on-demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was initially known as (TnaG), before bein ...

Saint Stephen's Day Saint Stephen's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Stephen, is a Christian saint's day to commemorate Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr or protomartyr, celebrated on 26 December in Western Christianity and 27 December in Eastern Ch ...

, 2007.

Bríd Ní Neachtain Bríd Ní Neachtain (; ; born 1959) is an Irish actress known for ''Dancing at Lughnasa''. Early life Born in Rosmuc, Neachtain is a native of Connemara. She starred in an adaptation of Máirtín Ó Cadhain's 1948 novel, ''Cré na Cille''. Sh ...

's performance was highly praised by critics.

Awards

Legacy

Dr Seán Crosson of the

University of Galway The University of Galway () is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. The university was founded in 1845 as "Queen's College, Galway". It was known as "University College, Galway" (UCG) () from 1908 to 1997 and as ...

observed that "It was remarked to me by one of those involved in the production of , for example, that if it had not been made this year, it would have been increasingly difficult for the work ever to have been successfully adapted as fluent speakers of the richly textured and complex Irish found in ÓCadhain's masterpiece become more difficult to find." Actress

appeared on an Irish 55 cent stamp in 2008, depicted in a still from .

References

External links

* * 2007 films Irish comedy-drama films Irish-language films 2000s Irish films {{Ireland-film-stub