Stephen Rea
The Ghost of Richard Harris is about the once famous Hollywood star and notorious hellraiser. It is the story of a legendary Irishman, perhaps the greatest actor Ireland has produced and of a father whose three sons, led by Jared Harris, still think about him every day, since his unexpected death twenty years ago.
Three adult siblings find their family thrown into disarray when their recently widowed mother, Vivien, declares she is in love with a new man. The tension his presence creates threatens to drag the whole family towards tragedy, and perhaps crime.
David Ireland's award-winning dark comedy about sectarian hatred in Northern Ireland. Eric Miller, a Belfast loyalist, mistakes his five-week-old granddaughter for Gerry Adams.
Samuel Beckett has fascinated Adrian Dunbar since he was a young student. Now, 30 years after Beckett's death in Paris, Dunbar explores what made the man who made Waiting for Godot.
This poignant testament to the physical and emotional cost of war, centres on the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
This feature-length documentary investigates the role the British government played in the murder of over 120 civilians in Counties Armagh and Tyrone from July 1972 to 1978.
In 1847, when Ireland is in the grip of the Great Famine that has ravaged the country for two long years, Feeney, a hardened Irish Ranger who has been fighting for the British Army abroad, returns home to reunite with his estranged family, only to discover the cruelest reality, a black land where death reigns.
A story that revolves around five aristocratic families, set during the reign of Alexander I, and centered on the love triangle between Natasha Rostova, Pierre Bezukhov, and Andrei Bolkonsky.
Dickensian intertwines the realm of fictional characters in Charles Dickens’ novels—including Scrooge, Fagin and Miss Havisham—in half-hour episodes, as their lives intertwine in 19th century London. The Old Curiosity Shop sits next door to The Three Cripples Pub, while Fagin’s Den is hidden down a murky alley off a bustling Victorian street.
Ruby Strangelove Young Witch: When Ruby, a young witch discovers her long lost mother was abducted by evil forces she sets out to use all her magical powers to get her back.
Nessa Stein, the daughter of a Zionist arms procurer who as a child witnessed his assassination. Now an adult, Nessa inherits her father's company and changes course from supplying arms to laying data cabling networks between Israel and the West Bank. Her efforts to reconcile the Israelis and Palestinians lands her an appointment to the House of Lords and creates an international political maelstrom.
A couple and their daughter moves to Colombia to take over a family manufacturing plant, only to realize their new home is haunted.
Inspired by Carmilla, the seminal 19th Century vampire tale by Sheridan LeFanu, STYRIA plunges the viewer into a haunted world of fantasy and obsession. In 1989, Lara Hill (Eleanor Tomlinson), accompanies her art historian father (Stephen Rea) to an abandoned castle across the Iron Curtain. From a car crash outside of the castle, emerges the beautiful and mysterious Carmilla. Lara secrets Carmilla into the castle and the two are drawn into an intoxicating relationship. But when Carmilla mysteriously disappears, and women of the town begin committing suicide, Lara’s psychic wounds erupt into a living nightmare that consumes the entire town of Styria.
A year ago, just before his break, Marc and Rachel manage to book a table at one of the best restaurants in the world, reserve to which none of them is willing to give. In this idyllic corner of the Costa Brava will find connoisseurs worldwide. Together they share one of the best sensory experiences of his life. It will be an unforgettable evening.
A community of comic book fans believe the graphic novel The Utopia Experiments predicted several disastrous epidemics. A rumoured unpublished sequel supposedly contains further information on future world events. When one Utopia enthusiast procures the manuscript, he invites four of his friends from an online forum to meet in real life. However, after getting their hands on the manuscript, the four – Ian, Becky, Wilson, and Grant – find themselves in over their heads, as a secret organisation only known as "The Network" is after it. They find their lives systematically dismantled, while Network operatives kill anyone in their way as they hunt for the manuscript and someone named Jessica Hyde.
Having escaped years of imprisonment, vampire warrioress Selene finds herself in a changed world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species. Now Selene must battle the humans and a frightening new breed of super Lycans to ensure the death dealers' survival.
A priest stationed in Tipperary, Ireland, is eager to return to Rome. Told he cannot do so until he has raised enough money for the building of a new church, he decides to open a cinema in the local town.
Set in a 19th century village, a young man studying under a local doctor joins a team of hunters on the trail of a wolf-like creature.
In Bolivia, Butch Cassidy (now calling himself James Blackthorne) pines for one last sight of home, an adventure that aligns him with a young robber and makes the duo a target for gangs and lawmen alike.
A murder is investigated by both sides of the line, cops and criminals, using opposing methods. But the real line is the morality within each person and how far they will go before they cross it.
In June 2009, a group Britain's leading actors gathered for one night only to perform a celebration of the work of Harold Pinter at the National Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson. The team who made the acclaimed Harold Pinter documentaries for BBC's Arena was there to record this unique performance.
Sibling rivalry turned into betrayal between two brothers. One a prime candidate for Prime Minister, the other a henchman for a successful, yet shady businessman. Presented with an opportunity to take revenge against his brother, our anti-hero must come to terms with the truth in a world where you can trust no one and loyalty is rare.
Alone in her empty flat, from her window Anne observes the people passing by who nervously snatch up the personal belongings and pieces of furniture she has put out on the pavement. Her final gesture of taking a ring off her finger signals she is leaving her previous life in Holland behind. She goes to Ireland, where she chooses to lead a solitary, wandering existence, striding through the austere landscapes of Connemara. During her travels, she discovers a house that is home to a hermit, Martin.
Father & Son is a four-part television crime thriller produced by Left Bank Pictures and Octagon Films for the British ITV network and the Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann. Written by Frank Deasy, the serial depicts the return of Michael O'Connor to his native Ireland, after spending several years imprisoned in the United Kingdom. A parallel storyline follows O'Connor's son and sister-in-law in Manchester.
Vincent is a bright young man but has introverted personality. He is working as a baggage handler at an airport and refuses to follow a career path accordingly to his education. With his colleague, Gerard, Vincent used to steal objects from the luggage in the hold before shipment. As he opens a diplomatic baggage, Gerard provokes an explosion and dies.
A couple and their six-year-old son move into an old Connecticut house where the boy soon becomes distraught with thoughts of monsters dwelling in the attic. When their friends and guests abruptly go missing or die mysteriously, it becomes a race against time as the family's lives are in peril.
"Heidi 4 Paws" is a live-action re-telling of Johanna Spyri's 1880 children's classic, "HEIDI", but with fully mouth-articulated dogs in all of the roles. "Heidi 4 PAWS" tells the story of the young orphan (this time as seen through the eyes of a yellow lab puppy) who is sent to live with her reclusive Grandfather (in this case an old sheepdog). Just as Heidi adjusts to her new life in the mountains, she is taken away by her social worker (a scrappy beagle). Heidi finds herself living in the big city with Clara Sesehound (a cockapoo mix), who has been made an invalid after a debilitating illness. Although Heidi comes to love Clara, her quest to return to the mountains dominates her stay. In the end, she is able to reunite with her beloved Grandfather. When Clara later comes to visit, the final miracle of Heidi's story is revealed when Clara regains her ability to walk.
Katherine Morrissey, a former Christian missionary, lost her faith after the tragic deaths of her family. Now she applies her expertise to debunking religious phenomena. When a series of biblical plagues overrun a small town, Katherine arrives to prove that a supernatural force is not behind the occurrences, but soon finds that science cannot explain what is happening. Instead, she must regain her faith to combat the evil that waits in a Louisiana swamp.
Anthony Stowe is a dirty cop who is hooked on heroin—and everyone hates him. After a serious accident, he is placed into an induced coma, but emerges from it a better person who wants to put things right.
All the action takes place in a swish London restaurant where two coarse-grained strategy consultants are dining with their respective wives. At an adjacent table a banker and his wife banter over his recently discovered affair. But while Pinter gets a lot of laughs out of these gold-plated philistines, he also suggests they are displaced people. Shorn of any inherited values, they live in an eternal present of sex, food and conspicuous consumption. - Michael Billington, Guardian
In a world in which Great Britain has become a fascist state, a masked vigilante known only as “V” conducts guerrilla warfare against the oppressive British government. When V rescues a young woman from the secret police, he finds in her an ally with whom he can continue his fight to free the people of Britain.
In the 1970s, a foundling lad, Patrick "Kitten" Braden, comes of age by leaving his Irish town for London, in part to look for his mother and in part because his transgender nature is beyond the town's understanding.
An intimate story set during the 1860s in which a young Irish woman Sarah and her family find themselves on both sides of the turbulent wars between British and Maori during the British colonization of New Zealand.
Two grieving women - Ria, a Dublin mom whose husband discloses he's in love with a woman already pregnant, and Marilyn, a Connecticut Yankee who's son has died - swap houses for a couple months. Marilyn finds solace in Ria's garden and becomes friends with Colm, a local with a restaurant and his own demons. Ria gets a job cooking, has a date or two, and gradually comes out of her shell. Meanwhile,
CHRISTIAN SLATER plays a worldly and urbane priest who is forced to challenge his comfortable existence as an ecclesiastical spin-doctor when he comes to believe in the innocence of a young priest accused of murder. His only ally, a journalist, is also his former sweetheart.
Fatso is the proprietor of what may be the worst eaterie in the city, and is struggling to keep a sinking ship afloat. His compulsive gambling is getting the better of him and he has to contend with an endless succession of loan sharks and debt collectors. He employs hopelessly incompetent staff and generally manages to keep the entire community around him ticking over. However just as Fatso seems to be getting everything under control, he is faced with a dilemma that could destroy him for good.
Simon Cable wakes up in a hospital bed, confused and disoriented. He soon discovers from doctors that he has amnesia and is unable to remember the last two years of his life. Cable investigates what has happened to him and slowly pieces together his enigmatic past.
A father in Ireland goes to watch a football match with his buddy while his daughter has to study Irish, or Gaelic - the ancient language of Ireland. After over-celebrating his club's victory, he awakes in the morning and finds he only speaks Irish, and that he doesn't even understand English. His buddy is aghast at this situation, believing his friend to have become possessed, but his daughter manages to translate his friend's assertion that this change may have been caused by a blow to the head during the revelries of the past evening's celebrations. They decide to hit him again, and use a frying pan for the job. Disastrous results ensue.
Desmond Doyle is devastated when his wife abandons their family on the day after Christmas. His unemployment and the fact that there is no woman in the house to care for the children, Evelyn, Dermot and Maurice, make it clear to the authorities that his is an untenable situation. The Catholic Church and the Irish courts decide to put the Doyle children into Church-run orphanages.
With four corpses on his hands, New York City gumshoe Mike Reilly (Stephen Dorff) teams with Department of Health worker Terry Huston (Natascha McElhone) to track down a homicidal sadist who telecasts shocking acts of torture on the Internet. But they have their work cut out: It seems the victims' only link is that they all went toes up 48 hours after logging on a site known as feardotcom.com. Stephen Rea also stars in this gruesome thriller.
No one knows for sure what transpired when German physicist Werner Heisenberg met with his Jewish Danish counterpart, Niels Bohr, in Copenhagen -- the event became the stuff of modern scientific mythology. Director Howard Davies puts his spin on the momentous meeting that occurred one night in September 1941, during which the longtime friends entered into a dangerous discussion about physics and politics.
In a world filled with hatred, their only hope was magic. Believe and anything can happen.
On the Edge is about suicidal patients discovering their true selves while going through therapy in a treatment center.
In Peter Hyams's adaptation of the famous Alexander Dumas story The Three Musketeers, the young D'Artagnan seeks to join the legendary musketeer brigade and avenge his father's death - but he finds that the musketeers have been disbanded.
On a rainy London night in 1946, novelist Maurice Bendrix has a chance meeting with Henry Miles, husband of his ex-mistress Sarah, who abruptly ended their affair two years before. Bendrix's obsession with Sarah is rekindled; he succumbs to his own jealousy and arranges to have her followed.
When schoolteacher Kieran Johnson (James Caan) discovers that his father was not a French sailor (as he had been led to believe) but rather an Irish farmer, Kieran looks to his mother (Moya Farrelly) for answers. When she refuses to provide any, Kieran travels to Ireland. In flashbacks, we watch a romance develop between Kieran's mother, a college girl, and his father (Aidan Quinn), an inarticulat
The film concerns an old Irish immigrant living in London who is looking back over his life. He recalls his early life in the west of Ireland, his first love, emigrating to England, searching for his brother Joe, who disappeared after he emigrated several years previously. His marriage and wife's later depth is also remembered.
Several innocent persons are hurt after two robbers, fleeing from the police, run into a neighborhood cafe.
In the seventies Strange Fruit were it. They lived the rock lifestyle to the max, groupies, drugs, internal tension and an ex front man dead from an overdose. Even their demise was glamorous; when lightning struck the stage during an outdoor festival. 20 years on and these former rock gods they have now sunk deep into obscurity when the idea of a reunion tour is lodged in the head of Tony, former keyboard player of the Fruits. Tony sets out to find his former bandmates with the help of former manager Karen to see if they can recapture the magic and give themselves a second chance.
Brian is a television writer-producer who has to script a 22-episode anthology, but lacks inspiration. He witnesses a strange romantic encounter between two figures on the balcony of hotel near his flat and decides to write scripts with his writer friends based on what he saw.
A romantic comedy about a man, a woman and a football team. Based on Nick Hornby's best selling autobiographical novel, Fever Pitch. English teacher Paul Ashworth believes his long standing obsession with Arsenal serves him well. But then he meets Sarah. Their relationship develops in tandem with Arsenal's roller coaster fortunes in the football league, both leading to a nail biting climax.
Dowd, an IRA prisoner in the H-blocks, is gloomily facing his sentence, until he joins a comrade in a risky escape. Dowd begins a new life in New York, but he might as well be in prison again - until he strikes up a friendship with co-worker Tulio and gets to know his close group of Guatemalan exiles.
Francie and Joe live the usual playful, fantasy filled childhoods of normal boys. However, with a violent, alcoholic father and a manic depressive, suicidal mother the pressure on Francie to grow up are immense. When Francie's world turns to madness, he tries to counter it with further insanity, with dire consequences.
A drug-lord targets an undercover FBI agent and the hit man she falls in love with while tracking.
It is 1977, Dublin rocks to the music of Thin Lizzy and the world is stunned by the death of Elvis Presley. Frankie, caught between acne and adulthood, has just completed his final exams in school. Convinced he will fail, he survives the summer organising a beach party, having lustful thoughts about two girls he believes are unobtainable and fending off the advances from a visiting American family friend, all whilst coping with his oddball family.
The story of Eddie, a small town ex con, who discovers he has talent for selling anything and everything. Eddie sees a way to rise above the low life by setting up on his own; what he didn't bargin for was the murder and mahem along the way.
Michael Collins plays a crucial role in the establishment of the Irish Free State in the 1920s, but becomes vilified by those hoping to create a completely independent Irish republic.
In 1932, the nation was shocked when the 14-month-old son of Charles Lindberg was kidnapped, held for ransom, and murdered. Two years later, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested, convicted, and executed. This film dramatizes the investigation against Hauptmann, the trial, and the execution, painting a picture of a corrupt police force under pressure to finger a killer framing an innocent man by manufacturing evidence, paying-off and blackmailing witnesses, and covering up exculpatory evidence.
A two-part biography of the Irish writer Samuel Beckett. The first part covers the traumas of his formative years: his ill-fated love affair with his first cousin, the death of his father, and his decorated service with the French Resistance. He had settled in France before the Second World War, met fellow Irishman James Joyce, and begun writing. Patrick Magee's television performance of `Krapp's Last Tape' (1972) is interwoven with key landscapes and personalities from Beckett's life. The second part concludes the story of how Beckett finally began to connect with his audience, principally through `Waiting for Godot'. Includes an interview with the actress Billie Whitelaw, a celebrated interpreter of his work.
40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes. The results run the gamut from Zhang Yimou's convention-thwarting joke to David Lynch's bizarre miniature epic.
The first part of O'Casey's "The Dublin Trilogy". Set in 1920, as the War of Independence rages, "Shadow of a Gunman" is the story of two young men, Donal and Seamus who share a flat in Dublin.
Two very different people become friends and partners in this nautical drama. Nikos (Stephen Rea) is a radio man working on a Greek freighter when he finds himself stranded in Hong Kong after the firm that owned his ship suddenly goes out of business. Nikos is already depressed over his recent breakup with his girlfriend, and this latest turn of events hardly makes him feel any better; he develops a dependence on opium as he works a variety of odd jobs trying to keep himself together while waiting for his ship to return to the sea. Li (Ling Chu) is a ten-year-old Chinese girl, cut off from her mother and father, who has a sampan and asks Nikos to help her get the boat ready for the water. Nikos doesn't much care for Li at first, but her youthful optimism and determination to succeed make an impression on him, and in time he leads her on a voyage to find the family she left behind years before.
Melodrama about a man cursed with immortality, who tries to declare his undying love for a depressed actress.
Based on the true story of a Russian serial killer who, over many years, claimed victim to over 50 people. His victims were mostly under the age of 17. In what was then a communists state, the police investigations were hampered by bureaucracy, incompetence and those in power. The story is told from the viewpoint of the detective in charge of the case.
Paris Fashion Week draws the usual bunch of people; designers, reporters, models, magazine editors, photographers. Follows the various storylines of these characters, centering around a murder investigation of a prominent fashion figure. Features an all-star cast.
Bristol, England, early 19th century. A beautiful young stranger who speaks a weird language is tried for the crime of begging. But when a man claims that he can translate her dialect, it is understood that the woman is a princess from a far away land. She is then welcomed by a family of haughty aristocrats that only wants to heighten their prestige. However, the local reporter is not at all convinced she is what she claims to be and investigates. Is Caraboo really a princess?
Angie lives in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, N.Y. and dreams of a better life than everyone she knows. When she finds that she is pregnant by her boyfriend Vinnie, she decides that she will have the baby, but not Vinnie as a husband. This turns the entire neighborhood upside down and starts her on a journey of self discovery. This journey includes her family, a new lover and her life. Even her best friend Tina has trouble understanding Angie. Written by Tony Fontana
A vampire relates his epic life story of love, betrayal, loneliness, and dark hunger to an over-curious reporter.
The McAllister family house is the setting for Gerry and Ellie's grapples with work, children and how to get the bathroom fixed. Both have reached the stage where reason cannot be heard above the ticking clock of experience and ambition. When temptation comes, how will they react?
Irish Republican Army member Fergus forms an unexpected bond with Jody, a kidnapped British soldier in his custody, despite the warnings of fellow IRA members Jude and Maguire. Jody makes Fergus promise he'll visit his girlfriend, Dil, in London, and when Fergus flees to the city, he seeks her out. Hounded by his former IRA colleagues, he finds himself increasingly drawn to the enigmatic, and surprising, Dil.
Not with a Bang was a short-lived British television sitcom produced by London Weekend Television in 1990. It ran for seven episodes, each 30 minutes long. The show was a dark science fiction comedy, focusing on the end of the human race on Earth. The title comes from the last line of T. S. Eliot's poem The Hollow Men "not with a bang, but a whimper".
Just north of London live Wendy, Andy, and their twenty-something twins, Natalie and Nicola. Wendy clerks in a shop, leads aerobics at a primary school, jokes like a vaudevillian, agrees to waitress at a friend's new restaurant and dotes on Andy, a cook who forever puts off home remodeling projects, and with a drunken friend, buys a broken down lunch wagon. Natalie, with short neat hair and a snappy, droll manner, is a plumber; she has a holiday planned in America, but little else. Last is Nicola, odd man out: a snarl, big glasses, cigarette, mussed hair, jittery fingers, bulimic, jobless, and unhappy. How they interact and play out family conflict and love is the film's subject.
Set in 1884, and based on the assumption that Britain is one of the Baltic states between Russia and Latvia, making it part of Europe instead of an off-shore island. It is winter 1884. To gain access to the sea, England has declared war on Latvia and believes herself to be winning. But Russia has sided with Latvia and England is doomed. The action takes place on New Year’s Eve in a country house on the Anglo-Latvian border. The guests are a cross section of the ruling classes.
Two couples, one Catholic, one Protestant, exist on two sides of the chasm that is everyday life in Northern Ireland. Both women are expecting babies, both couples tell offbeat stories, both couples get by with what little they have. Yet Mike Leigh allows his actors to show not how much but how little these two couple have in common. "Four Days in July" is wonderful yet scathing look at the turmoil that has engulfed Northern Ireland for generations.
An adaptation of Angela Carter's fairy tales. Young Rosaleen dreams of a village in the dark woods, where Granny tells her cautionary tales in which innocent maidens are tempted by wolves who are hairy on the inside. As Rosaleen grows into womanhood, will the wolves come for her too?
A woman (Lindsay Duncan) enlists a man (Stephen Rea) who claims he is gay to accompany her on a long drive to a feminist conference in Munich.
Saxophonist Danny witnesses the murder of his band manager and a deaf-mute girl after a gig. Questioned by the police, he remembers only the orthopedic shoes of the killers' leader. So begins his quest to avenge her. He seeks an answer to the simple question 'Why?' but finds only more, and deeper, questions which resonate with the wider context of 'the Troubles', the inter-communal strife gripping the modern-day Northern Ireland which is the film's setting.
"This could be a bit special, Maggie. This could be the first case of an office block falling down during the topping-out party." A self-made man finds his building firm in trouble as a new office block nears completion.
The Seagull is about the natural tendency to seek love in the wrong places. Masha is in love with the playwright Constantin, who is in love with Nina. However Nina ignores Constantin's affection and becomes infatuated with another man. Constantin must endure not only rejection but also the ridicule of his mother, Madame Arkadina, a fading diva.
Three philosophy professors travel to Prague for a conference. One of them, Anderson, is forced to rethink his ideas on ethics when a former student is arrested by the Czech authorities for writing about individualist approaches to morality.
Kevin's wife walked out, and left him holding the baby. No sleep, dirty nappies - and a career in pop music at risk. And ahead lies a visit to the clinic. Will Kevin succeed as a mother?
Less than 20 years after its birth, the Labour Party forms a government with Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister. Although outnumbered in Parliament by Conservatives and Liberals, Labour is the largest party. Many feel the task of legislating socialism into existence can now begin.
I Didn't Know You Cared is a British comedy series set in a working class household in South Yorkshire in the 1970s, written by Peter Tinniswood loosely based upon his books A Touch Of Daniel, I Didn't Know You Cared and Except You're A Bird. It was broadcast by the BBC in four series from 1975 to 1979. The main characters are Carter Brandon; his Uncle Mort; his mother, Annie; his father, Les; his girlfriend, Pat Partington; and Uncle Staveley. Auntie Lil appears in the first two series. Other recurring characters, mostly from Carter's workplace, are Linda Preston; Mrs Partington; Sid Skelhorn
Days of Hope is a BBC television drama serial produced in 1975. The series dealt with the lives of a working-class family from the turmoils of the First World War in 1916 to the General Strike in 1926. It was written by Jim Allen, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach.
After 18 years as a friar, Peter is no longer sure of his vocation. It is a happy life, maybe too much so, and now he has met Clare. Will his doubts run away with him? Runaway friars are officially "fugitives" who must be persuaded back to their order. Author Sean Walsh fled the Franciscan order to become first a journalist, then a playwright and is now a radio drama producer in Ireland.
Adaptation of the classic novel. A priceless jewel, originally plundered from a Hindu shrine, is presented to Rachel Verinder on her 18th birthday. The jewel goes missing and suspicion falls over the household, threatening to destroy someone close to Rachel's heart.
It's Samhain (Hallowe'en) in old Ireland, and King Connor is haunted by his life, his legacy, and the enemies he killed in his time. Based on the famous Ulster Cycle.
