That They May Face The Rising Sun – Film Review
by Frank L

Director – Pat Collins
Writers – Eamon Little, Pat Collins
Stars – Barry Ward, Anna Bederke, Ruth McCabe

This is an adaptation by Pat Collins and Eamon Little of John McGahern’s 2002 novel of the same title. It was McGahern’s last novel before he died in 2006. It is set in the late seventies or early eighties in County Leitrim, where McGahern was brought up and lived for many years. At the time, rural Ireland was already transformed by electrification but telephones were rare in many small communities. The internet and the mobile phone lay far into the future. If you wanted or needed to see a person you had to visit them in their home. So crossing the threshold of a house was commonplace.

Joe Ruttledge (Barry Ward) comes from the locality to which he has returned from England with his wife Kate (Anna Bederke). They have a small holding beside a lake. He is a writer; she is an artist. She retains an interest in a London art gallery which also shows her work. Their door is open to visitors and there is a steady procession of them. Patrick Ryan (Lalor Roddy) is an elderly bachelor who lives alone. Johnny Murphy (Sean McGinley) works in London at some mundane job and is thinking of returning. His brother Jamesie (Philip Dolan) is not overly enamoured by the idea. The film moves with the steady pace of the seasons. Everything has its time. There is little in the way of a plot. What it does develop is a sense of community centred around unremarkable, everyday happenings.

Joe recites some of the words that he is struggling to put down on the page. It helps the viewer to understand where he and Kate are coming from. She is more of an outsider and is connected to the urban world with her continuing concerns about the gallery. But they are adjusting well to this calm world of seasonal routine and their own rituals which give substance to their day. There is a steady flow. Big events do occur such as a wedding of a mature couple in the nearby village and a funeral which is handled with all the honour that rural Ireland displays for the dead. It is all measured and generous in spirit.

The photography of Richard Kendrick of the countryside, the fields, the lanes, the calm tread of the village and above all the lake is outstanding. It is all in step with the thoughtful world which Joe and Kate are seeking to develop as they come to terms with the landscape, the community and themselves within it.

This is a celebration of ordinary lives. The bustle and neverending busyness of the world is something that takes place elsewhere. What is important is what is happening to these individuals now in this remote location. McGahern understood the universality of a remote community. In this adaptation to the screen, Collins honours McGahern’s vision. It is a fine cinematic homage to his literary achievement.