Brendan Muldowney’s remarkable low-budget feature debut is uncompromising in its portrait of the violent underbelly of city life in Ireland. With echoes of Taxi Driver, Savage unfolds with a palpable sense of dread to a devastating climax. The best Irish feature film of 2009? We think so.

Paul Graynor (Darren Healy), an alienated press photographer who lives and works in an unfriendly and threatening city, becomes victim to a serious crime. Finding himself the subject, rather than the purveyor of an inner city tabloid story, Paul tries to come to terms with his attack, though the scars – both psychological and physical prove impossible to heal. His only hope of recovering his tenderness is in his burgeoning relationship with Michelle, a nurse who he met through her caring for Paul’s once violent, but now infirm father. Savage is an exploration of violence and masculinity, and studies, in forensic detail, Paul’s metamorphosis, from victim to avenger.

NB: This screening will be introduced by the filmmakers.

More on Savage HERE.