Moondance

Moondance (Directed by Dagmar Hirtz. Starring Ruaidhri Conroy, Ian Shaw, Julia Brendler, Marianne Faithfull and Brendan Grace)

Somewhere in very rural Ireland two brothers, Dominic (Ruaidhri Conroy) and Patrick (Ian Shaw) live by themselves with great self-sufficiency in a big old house in the middle of nowhere. Patrick is the older, paternal, practical figure. Dominic is frailer and slighter than Patrick, more vulnerable and possessed of a wildly dreamy imagination. Their father having died when Dominic was six, Patrick sixteen, and their mother (Marianne Faithfull) having left shortly afterwards to live with a tribe in Africa, the two young men lead a careless and somewhat neglected existence yet it is a lifestyle which might be the envy of many a young man.

Into this halcyon picture of brotherliness one day steps the dreaded Aunt Dorothy with a veritable foreign temptress by the name of Anya (Julia Brendler) in tow. More or less immediately, the two boy-men, in their own different ways, fall for Anya. For her part, Anya doesn’t take too long in making it clear that Patrick is the one on whom she will bestow her charms.

Not surprisingly, when the time comes for Anya to choose between the fussy ways of Aunt Dorothy and the carefree joys of Patrick and Dominic this uninhibited exotic beauty unequivocally joins forces with the two abandoned brothers.

Based on Francis Stuart’s story The White Hair Dagmar Hirtz’ beautifully shot film of the tensions between brotherly love and heterosexual desire is a moving and accomplished reflection on the nature and complexity of innocence and the inevitable corruption and dilution, though not necessarily despoliation, which that innocence must undergo if it is to survive in the world. As the scenes for the dramatic love conflicts shift from the idyllic world of the unspoiled countryside to the harsh, street wise reality of Dublin city the fresh-faced naiveté of the main characters also hardens into something more worldly. With this change in the mis-en-scène the mood of the picture also becomes darker and more intense. For the first time the menace of an unnameable violence becomes quite palpable and it seems to infiltrate the lives of Dominic, Patrick and Anya with variable degrees of destruction. The great thing about Moondance, though, is that it is never judgemental and always compassionate.

The way in which all the cast distil the most compelling authenticity must all go down as a credit to Dagmar Hirtz’ perspicacious directing. As the mother who is more loved for her absence than her presence and who returns home to a potential ménage-à-trois Hirtz zooms in on the iconographical history in Marianne Faithfull’s face to strike up an image of silent suffering and stoical motherhood. Faithfull is, consequently, very successful in a subdued and peripheral role. There are also a couple of hilarious cameos from Tom Hickey and David Kelly as a duo of camp religious icon vendors whose motto is “Once religion goes out of business then Hell freezes over.” Brendan Grace too come across as though he had been acting in films all his life.

Without ever being sentimental or calculating, Moondance is at once happy and sad and beautifully understated. The acting is superb throughout but perhaps one can be forgiven for singling out the performance of Ruadhri Conroy as Dominic. Conroy’s performance never buckles under the burden of having to represent the emotional, intellectual and artistic core of the movie. Indeed, it is the appropriately underplayed balance of these three qualities which enables Conroy’s character Dominic to emerge as a figure of great strength and fortitude by the end of the film even if silence, exile and cunning are an ambiguous reward for the self-sacrifices he seems to have to make. Moondance is an impressive addition to the growing number of movies one is proud to call Irish.

• Patrick Brennan