"Granuaile's stories are not really hers. They're the ghosts of older stories."
"Every story is a ghost. They take possession of the living."
Beautiful scenery out on Clare Island, Ireland, and there is something meaningful at the core of a fictional filmmaker trying to disentangle the mythology built up about Granuaile, aka Gráinne Mhaol, aka Grace O'Malley, the fierce 16th century leader of her clan in what is now County Mayo. The filmmaker befriends a younger woman who has written on the subject, and the two of them go on a journey that also touches on broader aspects of Irish subjugation at the hands of the English, like seeing famine villages, or 7,000 year old trees preserved by a bog, a reminder most of Ireland was once covered by trees.
Both women are regularly aware of the presence of their mothers who have died, and in an echo of that, begin internalizing what one of the local says one night in a pub, that Granuaile never really died, but goes on living inside of the people there. The stark landscapes and sites like the stunning Rockfleet Castle are bolstered by beautiful black and white photographs from the 1930's by Helen Hooker, whose husband, Ernie O'Malley, or Ó Máille, was perhaps a literal descendant of the Granuaile's. With this as the backdrop, the film channels collective grief, resilience, and feminism, something I really liked about it.
Unfortunately, in the final half hour or so it stumbled a bit for me as the fictional filmmaker began trying to create her vision. Just as the history and mythology have left a clouded view of the actual Granuaile, the film got a bit cloudy in its reenactments and both women taking turns as Granuaile. It seemed like it chose to be as elusive as history often is, but it was in a way that felt forced, and in any event, a little less satisfying. Worth seeing though.
