Pilgrim Hill

This moving portrait of a middle-aged farmer living in rural Ireland is an incredible achievement for first-time filmmaker Gerard Barrett.

Even if a screening is sold out, tickets are often available 30 minutes before the start of the film at the box office at each venue.


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  • Director-Producer-Screenwriter Gerard Barrett
  • With Joe Mullins, Muiris Crowley, Corina Gough
  • Ireland 2012
  • 76 mins
  • Production company Nine Entertainment Studios

Jimmy Walsh (Joe Mullins) is a middle-aged farmer living in rural Ireland. Unmarried and ill-educated, Jimmy has unquestioningly assumed responsibility for tending to the remote family land and its livestock, and has taken on the care of his ageing, bed-ridden father in the same manner. His social life amounts to a couple of pints in the pub when he can get away, and Jimmy is clearly finding his life tough. He’s not prepared for the turn it is about to take. Gerard Barrett’s low-budget debut feature was acclaimed after it premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh this year, taking the New Talent Award. Presented as a fiction, Pilgrim Hill reflects a reality for many men and women living in rural Ireland, and its raw realism is effective; the viewer can almost smell the cowshed or freshly cut peat. Pilgrim Hill is pertinent, sincere and moving filmmaking, an incredible achievement for a first-time filmmaker with limited resources.
Michael Hayden

Director statement

Pilgrim Hill, for me, was not about winning awards, being stylish or trying to be loud and stand out from the crowd. For me it was about telling the story of my aunt and uncle, who are both bachelor farmers living in rural Ireland. Ireland is spotted with these people all over our beautiful rural countryside and, for me, I wanted to tell their story. I wanted to know how they felt about their siblings moving on, having families, and how that affected them. I also wanted to explore their loneliness and isolation, and knowing you will be alone for the rest of your life. I wanted to know what it feels like not to leave a child behind to carry on your legacy. I think deep down these are all things we fear, being alone and isolated and not having anyone to live out our life with. The done 'thing' in our world is you meet someone that you choose to spend the rest of your life with, have kids, and live out your life together until inevitably the light goes off. But for some people life is not as easy as that, things and problems get in the way of people moving on to do those things. Pilgrim Hill, as my debut feature film, was about telling this personal story and for me it was all about telling the story in a real, truthful and naturalistic way. I hope I have done it justice.
Gerard Barrett

Director biography

A 24 year-old writer/director from County Kerry, where he studied film & television at Tralee IT, he has written and directed short films for RTE and most recently The Valley of Knockanure, which won top awards at the Kerry Film Festival and Newport Welsh Film Festival. Pilgrim Hill is his debut feature film and was shot on €4,500 over seven days in Kerry, premiering in July at the Galway Film Fleadh, where Gerard won the Best New Irish Talent Award and it was crowned film of the festival by the Irish Times. Also trained in radio, and with two plays to his name, he currently works as a writer for the Oscar-winning Brown Bag Films animation company in Dublin.

Filmography

2009 The Valley of Knockanure [s]
2012 Pilgrim Hill