'Guest of the Nation'

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday September 10, 2002 11:08 by Pat C

'Guest of the Nation' a short film about the trauma and isolation suffered by many asylum seekers and refugees, has been accepted for screening at the DarkLight Digital Film Festival being held in the old Lee's Cash and Carry Warehouse on the corner of Thomas St and Crane St in Dublin from Sept 20 to 22nd.

'Guest of the Nation' a short film about the trauma and isolation suffered by many asylum seekers and refugees, has been accepted for screening at the DarkLight Digital Film
Festival being held in the old Lee's Cash and Carry Warehouse on the corner of Thomas St and Crane St in Dublin from Sept 20 to 22nd.

The film was conceived, cast, crewed, filmed, edited and screened in four days as part of the Galway Film Centre and Galway Film Fleadh
initiative. It stars Nigerian actor and writer Eugene Ebhonuaye a Christian who fled sectarianism and racism in his own country to end up in Ballinamore Co Leitrim Ireland with his Ukrainian wife Irene who is a Muslim.

Guest of the Nation highlights the plight of many asylum seekers who have been traumatised and tormented by evil forces in their own countries, many of whose regimes are encouraged and supported for financial and geo-political reasons by the very countries in the West that seek to stop such people seeking sanctuary.

Made on a budget of 100 euro, the film is an excellent example of the immediacy of working with digital film and shows what can be done with a limited budget and an unlimited imagination.

As Gallagher himself puts it, 'Everything I needed to make this film, including most of the cast and crew could fit into the back of my Peugeot 205'