GLENN BURGESS suggests that, despite his record in Spain, Orwell’s enduring commitment to socialist revolution underpins his late novels
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Film round-up: May 13, 2022
MARIA DUARTE reviews The Quiet Girl, Father Stu, The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson and Vortex
The Quiet Girl, a powerful coming-of-age drama
[Inscéal] 
CHRISTOPHER POLLARD explains how and why neoliberalism adopted the racist agenda common to the populist right of today
SYLVIA HIKINS recommends a sweeping survey of the world's biggest desert and the people who live there
GUILLERMO THOMAS is persuaded by a scathing critique of the Church of England and its embeddedness in imperialism
MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Materialists, Unmoored, Together, and Bambi: A Tale of Life in The Woods
TONY BURKE revels in the publication of previously unreleased tracks by the great US folksinger
GORDON PARSONS endures heavy rock punctuated by Shakespeare, and a delighted audience
The Quiet Girl (12A)
Directed by Colm Bairead
★★★★
SET in rural southern Ireland in 1981, this very intimate yet understated and quietly powerful coming-of-age drama explores child neglect and grief through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl.
Writer-director Colm Bairead’s impressive debut feature is an Irish-language adaptation of the short story Foster by Claire Keegan, which centres on Cait (astounding newcomer Catherine Clinch), one of four siblings, sent away by her dysfunctional and impoverished family to stay with distant relatives over the summer while her pregnant mother deals with the new baby.
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