His Excellency, Ambassador of Ireland to Germany Michael Collins welcomed a full house at the embassy, to share the films and experience Irish cinema. The screening included Yu Ming is Ainm Dom, a film around thirteen minutes long. The production is largely in the Irish language, and the title means My Name is Yu Ming in English. Made in 2003, it is a short film about a Chinese man, who, bored with his life in China, decides to pick a country at random to visit. Having spun the globe and landed on Ireland, he strives to become perfectly fluent in Gaelic before visiting the country. However, when he gets there he is not understood by the majority of people, since English is the widely spoken language.

Even shorter, Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty is an animated socially satirical black comedy, directed by Nicky Phelan and produced by Darragh O’Connell. The film has received eleven national and international awards, including Outstanding Achievement in Short Films at the Newport Beach Festival and Best Comdey at the Heart of Gold Film Festival in Australia.

Other films shown included Rhinos, a short drama about a German girl, Ingrid, and Irish Thomas, who are thrown together, and despite a language barrier, learn far more about each other than they believed possible.

The event was a success for the Irish Film Institute, and also featured addresses by director Robert Manson and filmmaker Robert Lochmann. Manson’s Lost in the Living will be shown in Berlin at the Freilichtkino Pompeji, on August 18th, so this was not the only chance to catch Irish film in Berlin.

• References: http://www.ifi.ie/international/international-calendar/

News from Berlin
Rhianna Cearns, Berlin Global