WILDFIRE: Irish Eyes No Longer Smile In Affecting Sibling Drama

As we wait for the world to emerge from the shadow of shut down and for places and venues to being to open again, the film world is continuing to evolve and adapt to an unprecedented time. With cinemas still closed but the appetite for art and escape still needed, maybe now more than ever, the film industry has embraced new ways to bring new features into our homes and our lives.

With many film festivals either running on a smaller scale or unable to take place physically at all, the rise of virtual film festivals has emerged to offer cinema lovers the chance to still seek out and discover new, exciting titles. It has also allowed people who are not geographically close to where a festival is taking place, to be able to access the content wherever they are.

One of these events is the Hebden Bridge Film Festival, a fresh and emerging celebration of cinema whose line up aims to put female directors and stories alongside world cinema at its forefront. Scheduled to take place last year, it was one of the first to be cancelled due to Covid and should have been an event at the heart of the small but culturally vibrant village Hebden Bridge with films planned to be shown at venues including the Picture House cinema, which itself will be celebrating its centenary this year.

The festival will run between the 19^th– 21^st March online and includes a diverse mix of films including the premiere of Cathy Brady’s intense Irish drama debut Wildfire.

Returning to a place of rifts

Wildfire begins with a haunting, brooding sound as stock footage of the conflicts that plagued Ireland, and that has emerged again in the post-Brexit landscape, fills the screen. Scenes of fires in town centres, IRA gunmen carrying weapons amidst civilians, and rubble from the fallout of bomb blasts litter the streets and people’s lives. The film then shifts to focus on a more personal story of two sisters who have felt the effects of the divided nation but also whose family tragedy has consumed their worlds.

We are first introduced to Kelly (Nika McGuigan) by the sound of waves and of her hair dancing in the wind as she stands on the deck of a ferry carrying her back to her Northern Ireland hometown. As she lands back onshore, she is immediately stopped and taken aside by customs who give her a thorough search. As they inspect her belongings, Kelly stands uncertain, bedraggled, and dirty with visible body hair and bruises, like a feral animal that has just been caught in a driver’s headlights.

When she is asked what is in one of her hands, she reveals a St. Christopher necklace and tells the customs officer “He is no longer a saint, people got rid of him because he couldn’t perform miracles anymore”. Her remark establishes a woman who has lost her way but is still clinging to something that once held levity in another life. Her file on the system reveals that she has been missing for a year and this time, she appears to have become withdrawn from human interaction, as she walks the streets with her backpack at night, she glimpses a wolf that is not there but is akin to her spirit inside.

Kelly finally ends up at the door of her sister Lauren (Nora-Jane Noone) and it is immediately established that there is a giant chasm between their lives with Lauren’s husband remarking that in Kelly’s absence Lauren has been through hell. When, after Kelly has spent the night in the spare room, Lauren finally has a confrontation with her sister, her initial reaction is to kick Kelly out, despite the scene showing the closeness that these sisters once had (toast is made with crusts removed which tenderly hints at a bygone familiarity). But after her immediate reaction, Lauren lets Kelly stay, however her presence begins to open buried wounds and family trauma that will engulf the sisters.

Unrest in the past and future

As Kelly’s return and behaviour cause concern amongst Lauren’s family and friends, it is revealed that their mother died when they were children, but the cause of her death remains a distorted area of uncertainty. Whilst it is widely believed by most that she died in a car crash, images permeate scenes of their mother standing on a cliff edge, of her locking her children in the car, and of someone with a fragile state of mind consuming them. As the film reveals hints and clues to their mother’s mental illness, the sisters, particularly Kelly, begin to grapple and fight against the emotional indicators that threaten to engulf their psychological state. And as other people around them start to feel unease, the sisters abandon the gulf between them and become insular but erratic in their co-dependency.

Lauren’s behaviour and look changes as the film progresses, in early scenes, she is markedly different from her sister, with clean clothes and hair that is always tied up, but she begins to transform in step with Kelly, letting her locks loose, her clothes to become more dishevelled and her actions more unpredictable. In one powerful scene, the sisters are in a pub dancing to the song Gloria (one of their mother’s favourites) in a section away from anyone else. Their intense movements mimic each other like a mirror image, their hair is free and wild, and the scene moves into something also animal in their manner. When they have finished their dance, they begin to talk jovially in synchronised answers to a man in the pub, who is revealed to have been a member of the IRA involved in a bomb attack that killed their father. The scene shifts back from the one sister’s moment of escape back to the suffering that fuelled their mother’s mental health, and which is trickling into their present.

Female fuelled fervour

Cathy Brady’s debut feature is an accomplished piece of work, combining emotional realism with a heady sense of atmosphere from arresting camerawork and a minimalist but effective score. Whilst the colour palette of the film remains subdued, the use of red is highly effective, recurring in scenes and sequences to highlight the wildness that exists in these women’s lives. Their mother’s coat, which she wore on the day she died, becomes an emblem for Kelly and during the final sequence, the sister’s bond is complete in matching crimson hues. The screen also turns red for a few moments as they both witness a mirage of their mother walking on a country road, only to be replaced by a wolf.

The performances meanwhile are all excellent, indie favourite Katie Dickie makes a small but effective appearance as the sisters’ Auntie while the two leads Nika McGuigan and Nora-Jane Noone embody their characters perfectly. They manage to convey their relationship with a lifetime of small details wrapped up in a lean running time. Brady’s film feels distinct and modern, we have had stories on our screen about the conflicts in Ireland from a male point of view, but rarely do we see it from the perspective of two females who are at the front and centre and heart of the narrative.

Conclusion

Wildfire is a commanding calling card for Brady, showcasing kitchen-sink realism and a powerful portrayal of sibling heartbreak. It is also a bittersweet tribute to actor McGuigan, the film is lovingly dedicated to her as she tragically died during post-production and whose performance weighs with extra resonance after the credits roll.

As the landscape of cinema is currently in a unique and unparalleled era, the one positive that we can try and salvage from this time is that hopefully some of the smaller films, that would have gotten lost between the big studio releases or would have only been available in select theatres, are now available in our own homes. And whilst it’s never the same as going to the actual cinema, being able to discover these smaller, independent titles through online film festivals and services means they may get seen more widely than previously. I hope this is the case for Wildfire which is a great addition to the lineup for the Hebden Film Festival and a compelling watch for anymore that seeks it out.

Have you watched any films from online festivals this year? Would you give Wildfire a watch?

Wildfire is showing as part of the Hebden Bridge Film Festival (19th-21st March) and is due to be released in June 2021 in the UK.

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