Munster Express Online

Amid all the international and national films showing at the upcoming Waterford Film Festival at Greyfriars Art Gallery (Nov 5-7th), there is a distinctly local film burgeoning with Waterford talent in every department.

The short film ‘The Ottoman Empire’ was written and directed by West Waterford native James Phelan. It was produced by Ring based production company Nemeton TV and features our own Carrie Crowley in a lead role.

Carrie plays a spectacularly indiscreet psychiatrist who interviews a nervous man with an initially unexplained fear of couches. Over the course of the film, the cause of his anxiety is revealed to Carrie’s staunchly disbelieving character.

The part is deliciously played with wry detachment by Crowley and she explains that the multi-faceted aspect of the character was what attracted her to the role. ‘I loved the fact that her character was so layered. In many ways she seems to be exactly what one would expect from somebody in her job … and yet…. there’s another side to her that makes her very interesting to play and that’s always the deciding factor’.

For long stretches the film is fundamentally a two hander so someone of equal comedic and dramatic ability was needed to play opposite Carrie. The writer/director had previously worked with Tom O Suilleabhain on the TG4 hit series ‘Rasai na Gaillimhe’. James reveals, ‘Tom has such a deft touch as an actor. He really grounds the character in humanity and also injects a discernible strain of sadness that is really affecting in what is ostensibly a light comedy’.

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