THAT THEY MAY FACE THE RISING SUN 15

As part of Irish History Month, we are pleased to show That They May Face the Rising Sun, the 2023 adaptation of the final novel from John McGahern, one of Ireland’s greatest novelists. Joe and Kate Ruttledge have returned from London to live and work among a small, rural, lakeside community in Ireland near to where Joe grew up. Now deeply embedded in the life around the lake, the drama of a year in their lives and those of the memorable characters that move about them slowly unfolds through the rituals of work, play and the passing seasons.

As Sight and Sound wrote: “Director Pat Collins and his co-writer Éamon Little have wisely taken an elliptical approach to adapting McGahern’s work. Characters drift in and out of the picture, narrative threads are unresolved, and much is left unsaid; all we get is a brief window into these lives, and an evocative snapshot of a particular time and place. It’s such mundane details that make up the stuff of life – as local businessman The Shah (John Olohan) puts it, “The rain comes down, the sun shines, grass grows, children grow old and die. That’s the holy all of it” – and Collins brings the curious, attentive eye of the documentarian to capturing these moments, making That They May Face the Rising Sun a quietly captivating experience.”

That They May Face the Rising Sun is 1 hour 51 minutes long, plus an interval.