REPORT: Paul O’Rourke
TWO young men from different sides of the city: one from Darndale, the other from Killiney.
They share a common dream to build something exciting together, and set out on a journey to tell others about their new venture.
Sounds like the plot of a film, but this story is more about the people behind the camera than in front of it.
The two men are John Connors, from Darndale and Mark O’Connor, from Killiney, and what they created is the new Irish mobster movie, ‘Cardboard Gangsters’.
Having previously worked together on ‘King of the Travellers’, which O’Connor wrote and directed, this time out the two shared writing duties on the script. O’Connor explained how that process worked.
“John wrote the story on his own, and then he very openly let me come on board and gave me the freedom to go off with it,” he said.
Connors, most famous for playing the part of Patrick in ‘Love/Hate’, stars as Jay Connolly, a part-time DJ and low-level drug dealer.
When his welfare is cut, Jay and his mates decide it’s time to move in and take over the patch of the area’s biggest drug lord, but this proves to be a major mistake.
The film was shot, and is set in Darndale, but according to Connors, it could be any working class area across Dublin.
“The whole film is contained within a two-mile radius and it’s very much a neighbourhood film in the way that ‘Boyz n the Hood’ was,” said O’Connor.
The writers aren’t concerned that this very Dublin film will have problems travelling.
“We’ve done better abroad than in Ireland,” said Connors, and awards at the Newport and Manchester Film Festivals would seem to back that up.
O’Connor gives an example of how the movie has resonated and tells the story of an indigenous Hawaiian man who approached him after the film screened at Newport.
“He told me he was crying at the end and that he just connected with the story because he grew up with the same situation in a rough part of Hawaii,” he said.
The film relies heavily on Irish music and one sequence in particular, containing the Damien Dempsey song ‘Serious’, is particularly effective.
“That was the first song I put into the script,” said Connors. “His music is so cinematic.”
And as for the message they are trying to get across to their audience, the pair are confident that this is not simply a glorification of gang life violence.
“Community leaders in the area read the script and loved the message,” said Connors.
“They are the people I’d be getting the most backlash from if it didn’t work.”
O’Connor said the father/son relationship and realising the consequences of your actions were two important ideas they wanted to convey.
“The most important message to young people is: don’t get involved in crime,” he added.
‘Cardboard Gangsters’ opened in cinemas on June 16.