By Claire Corrigan
NOT one but three films starring Mullingar native Niamh Algar have been nominated for the acclaimed Audi Dublin International Film Festival it was revealed last week.
The Festival runs from 16 to 26 February and is set to bring a large number of Irish and international films to the capital.
Alongside the films, the Festival will also bring international stars to the red carpet, like Vanessa Redgrave, Nathalie Baye, Ben Wheatley, and Anna Friel, alongside Ireland’s own Cillian Murphy and Aiden Gillen.
On Monday, Niamh told Topic about three films, ‘Without Name’, ‘Pebble’ and ‘Gone’ as well as what 2017 holds for the busy actor, who is a member of the well known Algar family in Mullingar. She is daughter of David and Angela Algar, Carrick, Lough Ennell.
A thrilled Niamh said that she was delighted to receive the honour with so much talent on display during the festival. “It’s great to be nominated and there’s huge amount of talent in that pool so we were thrilled to get that far.”
Psychological drama ‘Without Name’ is set in a unnamed rural area in Ireland and looks at the many ways people isolate themselves and what that isolation can do to the mind. The film stars Niamh and Alan McKenna who plays the main protagonist Eric, a land surveyor sent by a shady private investor to record and collect data on a particular site called ‘Gan Ainm’ which in English translates to Without Name.
Niamh plays a character called Olivia, Eric’s assistant who, unlike the quiet and reserved Eric, is a fun- free spirit, who consistently thrives when surrounded with noise and drama to distract herself from her own demons.
“While he’s there, he begins to realise that the land is beginning to have a psychological hold on him. It’s about the idea that natural ecology can have an effect on someone’s being.
“It fits into the whole supernatural. There’s a film called ‘Under the Skin’ and it’s in the same genre as that,” Niamh told Topic.
She said that despite the film’s ominous theme, there were few scenes that generated an eerie feeling. “There’s a scene when Eric properly loses it and it takes it out on Olivia and because Alan does such a good job, I kind of got caught up in the moment and was like ‘woah!’ but other than that, it wasn’t scary on set. It was such a fun and lovely set to be on and the crew were so warm and welcoming that you didn’t ever feel like you were filming something that wasn’t a comedy,” she laughed. Niamh has two other short films appearing in the festival called ‘Gone’ and ‘Pebbles’. She filmed Pebbles with renowned actor and co-founder of the Druid Theatre Company, Marie Mullen. “We both play the same character 50 years apart. On the day of her wedding, she makes a promise that she will visit the hotel where she spent her honeymoon with her husband, no matter what. I play the character on the first day of her honeymoon. It’s just a really beautiful little story and Marie is such a lovely woman to work with. The calibre of work she has done in the past is amazing and it was great just to see her work.”
Gone is a coming-of-age story set in Dublin around a young couple when the boy leaves. “He leaves and he has to return to bury his mother and in the process he also deals with some of things from his past regarding my character and what’s happened since he’s left. He thinks he can walk back in and it will all be the same but it isn’t of course.”
Niamh said the film will be released in April, with the premiere having previously been held off so it could enter the festival. “All the films were shot in the latter part of the year. ‘Without Name’ had its world premiere at Toronto, and it went on to London and was featured in another few festivals around Europe. They were just going to go straight in for an Ireland theatrical release, but they held off for the Dublin Festival and the plan was to just release it after that in Ireland and in the UK. It will be available online in the US and Canada.”
Asked if she was excited at the prospect of so many people seeing her films, she said that it was even more head spinning for actors who find themselves in online series.
“A friend of mine, Paddy Gibson, is in a series called The OA which on Netflix. I think that’s mental because you wake up one morning and you’re an instant star and people have seen 12 hours of you on the internet and they know everything you know, everything!”
So what does 2017 hold for the young rising star?
“I signed with a London agency and the work that they have been getting me for this year is very exciting.”
Niamh’s film will premiere on Saturday, 18 February at 6pm and tickets are on sale on the festival website.
