MOVIE: We need to talk about Frank

WITH so many Irish directors looking to make it big in Hollywood these days, it’s interesting that the one producing the best work is happy to stay on Dublin’s Northside. 

Frank Berry is a tutor in the media department of Colaiste Dhulaigh in Coolock and also teaches their top-up degree in video and film production. 

In his spare time, Frank writes and directs award winning movies. His last film, ‘I Used to Live Here’, won the best first feature award at the 2014 Galway Film Fleadh and was later nominated for a best film IFTA, while his current project, ‘Michael Inside’, went one step further this year winning the top prize.

Someone with an obvious social conscience, Berry likes to tackle meaty issues affecting the less fortunate in society. 

‘I Used to Live Here’, for example, dealt with issues of teen suicide while ‘Michael Inside’ focuses on drug dealing and its destructive consequences, both films set in Dublin.

Berry’s filmmaking approach is an insightful and intelligent one. While a movie like ‘Cardboard Gangsters’ tackles the same subject of substance abuse, Berry looks behind the drugs and the individual to ask why they got involved in the first place, and examines how difficult it can be to escape that toxic world. 

Dafhyd Flynn stars as 18-year-old Michael who lives with his grandfather on a working class Dublin estate. 

With his mother not around and his father in the clink, things go from bad to worse when Michael is asked to hold a bag of drugs for a friend, the cops close in and he’s sentenced to follow his old man inside. 

With excellent performances from everyone involved and Berry using the camera unobtrusively, the story feels raw and real as it draws us in emotionally.     

I spoke with Frank back in 2015 during an interview for Near FM and asked him what would happen if Hollywood ever came knocking. 

Would he give up his day job? “That’s an easy question. I wouldn’t go, I like working within communities,” he replied. 

Hats off to him and to ‘Michael Inside’, which earns our review score of 4 compelling stars.

Paul O'Rourke