Belgrade Hosts First Irish Culture Festival

A scene from the movie 'What Richard Did' | Photo: Courtesy of Belgrade Irish Festival

The first-ever Belgrade Irish festival from March 11-17 will present stars such as singer and actress Maria Doyle Kennedy, quality new movies that debuted last year, and some recent Irish cinema classics.

The festival officially opens at the Jugoslovenska Kinoteka with the screening of the movie ‘What Richard Did’ (2012).

Directed by Lenny Abrahamson, the film follows Richard Karlsen (Jack Reynor), golden-boy athlete and undisputed alpha-male of his privileged set of South Dublin teenagers, through the summer holidays between the end of school and the beginning of university.

Other movies to be screened include ‘The Hardy Bucks Movie’ (2013), ‘Good Vibrations’ (2012), ‘Runway’ (2010), ‘One Hundred Mornings’ (2009), ‘Triage’ (2009)  and many more.

‘The Hardy Bucks Movie’ is a film version of an Irish mockumentary TV show about five small-town lads. The movie by Mike Cockayne follows the five Hardy Bucks as they travel to Poland to support the Irish football team during the Euro 2012 soccer tournament.

‘Good Vibrations’, directed by Lisa Barros D'Sa and Glenn Leyburn, is a movie about Terri Hooley, a prominent figure in the Belfast punk scene and the founder of the Good Vibrations alternative record shop and label, which was responsible for propelling bands such as The Undertones to European renown.

Maria Doyle Kennedy | Photo: Courtesy of Belgrade Irish Festival

A concert by Maria Doyle Kennedy, famous for her intense, emotional music based on folk roots, will take place on March 16 at Dom Omladine Beograda.

Finally, the theatre show 'Catalpa', an epic tale based on a story about the brave rescue of six Irish prisoners from a British penal colony in Australia in 1875, will come to the Bojan Stupica stage of the Yugoslavian Drama Theatre.

Playwright Donan O'Kelly is also one of the actors in the production which has been touring the world for past two decades, and has been performed in cities such as New York, Chicago, Boston, London and Paris, among others.

Scene from the play 'Catalpa' | Photo: Courtesy of Belgrade Irish Festival

The festival is organised by local Irish journalists in cooperation with Irish embassy in Athens and the consulate in Belgrade, the Irish Film Institute, the EU delegation in Serbia, and leading film and cultural institutions in Belgrade such as Dom Omladine Beograda, and Jugoslovenska Kinoteka.

More information about the festival programme and venues is available here.