A 92 minute Feature Documentary
Lugh Films/Déarcán Media/Tita Productions present
Tribe of Gods (Treibh na nDéithe)
The last King of Tory Island and his community fight their Government to keep their unique way of life.
Short Synopsis :
While undergoing extensive treatment for cancer, the semi-retired king of Tory Island is once more confronted with the neglect of his community by its own Government. Having made a come-back from the knife-edge of evacuation some 30 years ago, the King and his community are forced to undertake a new campaign to fight for their rights for safe access across the treacherous 9 sea miles of the North Atlantic Ocean that is the Tory Sound.
Director’s notes : “In 1999, my life and my work changed with the discovery of the small community of Tory Island in Donegal, one of the most isolated and poor regions of the Republic of Ireland.
Filming the islanders on a daily basis on this isle of 5 km long by 1 wide, without trees and without a doctor, required that I settle there to understand and respect their codes, their customs, their spirit, their language and their history. . Nothing could be planned, anticipated with the islanders. I had to be there in the moment, grab the present and quickly. Another choice would only have allowed me to fly over the surface of things.
The “challenge” was too tempting for a director. Nothing was holding me back, change for another life was therefore possible. I choose to live in Tory for a couple of years.
In 1999, on this small rock in the middle of the North Atlantic, I took the path of the observational documentary, a form of ethnological glance on the life of the others with a documentary narrative structure.
Without pretending to compare my work to Jean Epstein’s in the 1920 in France, I believe that we very probably perceived the same needs. The desire to belong to an isolated community, to isolate oneself from the world, to be a privileged observer of a world that is disappearing or changing. Observed to save perhaps … the reasons are many and varied.“
Press Articles about the tory situation
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