That They May Face the Rising Sun

That They May Face the Rising Sun is an 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, lakeside community in rural 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 unfolds through the rituals of work, play and the passing seasons as this enclosed world becomes an everywhere.

That They May Face The Rising Sun is the third full length feature film from Irish auteur director, Pat Collins.

Screenings

BFI London

October 8th & 9th 2023

Gothenburg Film Festival, Sweden

January 26th & 27th 2024

Santa Barbara, California

February 10th & 11th 2024

Boulder Film Fest, Colorado

Friday 1st March 2024

DIFF, Dublin

March 2nd 2024

Capital Irish Film Festival, Washington DC

Sunday 3rd March 2024

Chicago Irish Film Festival

Sunday 3rd March 2024

Beautifully realised and quietly beguiling

Screen Daily

A mesmerizing adaptation of an ‘Unfilmable story

Geek Vibes Nation

Another triumphant film for Irish Cinema

Flickering Myth

paints a poignant picture of tradition, memory, and the passage of time

High on Films

a powerful and delicate portrayal of ordinary life in rural Ireland.

Loud and Clear Reviews

…quietly affecting, funny and filled with a stunningly subtle exploration of life’s hardships

Film Carnage

Director: Pat Collins

Producers: Tina O’Reilly & Brendan J. Byrne

Director of Photography: Richard Kendrisk L.S.C

Casting Director: Maureen Hughes

Costume Design: Lousie Stanton

Executive Producer: Philip King

Sound Recordist: John Brennan

Production Design: Padraig O’Neill

Original Music: Irene Buckley & Linda Buckley

Pat Collins

Writer / Director

Since 1998 PAT COLLINS has made over 30 films. His last film The Dancereceived its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival 2021 and wasthe Gala Screening at Cork Film Festival 2021. Previous feature documentaryHenry Glassie: Fieldwork premiered at TIFF in 2019.

His feature film ‘SONG OF GRANITE’, funded by the Irish Film Board, BAI, SODEC and Telefilm Canada, was based on the life of the traditionalIrish singer Joe Heaney. It received its world premiere at SXSW 2017 and was released in cinemas by Oscilloscope Distribution in the USA, Thunderbird Releasing in the UK and Canada, and Wildcard Distribution in Ireland.‘SONG OF GRANITE’ was the Irish nomination for best Foreign Language Oscar 2018. Fionnuala Halligan, Chief Film Critic of ‘Screen International’wrote “In an era of safe film-making, especially within the art-house sector,it’s rare to view a title as formally audacious as ‘SONG OF GRANITE’.”

His 2012 feature film ‘SILENCE’ received its international premier at London International Film Festival in 2013 and was distributed in Irish cinemas by Element Distribution and New Wave Films in the UK. He was co-director of the historical 3 part series ‘1916’. The series was broadcast on RTÉ,BBC and PBS in America. In 2012, the Irish Film Institute curated a mid-career retrospective of his work to date. saying “…Viewed together, these fascinating screenworks offer a unique snapshot of Ireland at the turn of the21st century.” The Irish Times listed ‘SILENCE’ and ‘SONG OF GRANITE’ in the top twenty ‘Best Irish films of all time’.He has made films on the writer John McGahern, the poets Michael Hartnett and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, the singer Thomas McCarthy and the Connemara based writer and cartographer Tim Robinson. ‘ABBAS KIAROSTAMI –THE ART OF LIVING’ (co-directed with Fergus Daly) was picked up forinternational distribution in 2004 by MK2. He has directed political featureessay films ‘WHAT WE LEAVE IN OUR WAKE’ (2009) and ‘LIVING INA CODED LAND’ (2014) and his short experimental work has screened atnumerous Irish and international film festivals, and many galleries includingthe ICA London, Galway Arts Festival, The Visual Carlow and Crawford ArtGallery.

Eamon Little

Writer

Éamon Little is a filmmaker, screenwriter and radio documentary maker living in County Galway. Currently he is making ‘BORN THAT WAY’, a feature documentary film on the late Patrick Lydon, an inspirational figure of the worldwide Camphill Movement. He is also making ‘THE BOW’, an internationally co-produced feature documentary on the remarkable story of all that goes into a top class violin bow. He is currently working on an adaptation for cinema of John McGahern’s 1979 novel, ‘THE PORNOGRAPHER’. His eponymous screen adaptation of John McGahern’s final novel ‘THAT THEY MAY FACE THE RISING SUN’, is finished and awaiting its world premiere.

His previous films include ‘LIVING COLOUR’ (Wildfire Films 2011), ‘NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH’ (short drama, Loopline Films, 2010,) ‘RED MIST’ (Wildfire Films 2007), ‘AN DOMHNACH IN ÉIREANN’ (Sundays in Ireland) (Harvest Films, 2005), ‘NOBODY HOME’ (short fiction, JDMproductions, 2002) and ‘QUICKFIX’ (short drama, LittleVision 1996). In the past decade Éamon has made seven ‘films for radio’, the most recent being‘NO ORDINARY JOE’, a monologue by a 102-year-old Holocaust survivor and Resistance fighter from Slovakia who has lived in Ireland for 72 years.

His radio documentary on the violin bow, ‘IF THE STICK DANCES’, was runner up at the New York Documentary Festival, 2017. Éamon has collaborated on a number of projects with Pat Collins, most notably ‘OILEÁNTHORAÍ’ (2002), ‘JOHN MCGAHERN – A PRIVATE WORLD’ (2005) and‘SILENCE’ (2011), for all of which he recorded sound.