Dear Imelda, a short film created by Co Down film-makers Declan Curran and Árón Holden, will be making its Irish premiere at the Oscar- and Bafta-qualifying Foyle Film Festival in Derry next month.
Starring Father Ted actress Rose Henderson in the titular role, the short explores the relationship between Imelda and her grandson Ciaran (played by Curran) as they navigate living together for the first time.
“I had actually met Rose at a film festival a couple of years ago,” says Declan who wrote, directed and starred in his first short, Shine, in 2021 which won a number of awards both nationally and internationally as well as being screened at Cannes.
“She’d seen something else that I had done, and she was quite complimentary about it and said if we were ever doing something to keep her in mind.
“Now, I thought she was just being polite but fast forward to when we’d written the script for Dear Imelda, we decided to reach out to Rose to see if she’d be interested.
“She came back a few days later and said she was in and that was it - she’s been amazing, and we still can’t believe how lucky we’ve been.”
Evidently inconvenienced by Ciaran’s arrival Imelda struggles to adjust, particularly when he installs the internet - something she initially views with suspicion. However, it’s this combination of tech and tradition that plays a pivotal role in rekindling a friendship that’s been on hiatus for some 60 years.
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“Árón and I have made a decent amount of short films,” Declan explains.
“But the thing about them is you’re calling in a lot of favours for crew and casting, so we really wanted to create something that could be filmed in one location with minimal cast.
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“So, the idea quite literally fell out of the sky over breakfast – a film set in rural Ireland, with two people - a nanny and a grandson, which we thought would work well because it’s hopefully a dynamic most people can relate to.”
“Universally everyone’s had that experience with their granny where you butt heads and that’s really what the film’s focuses on,” adds Árón, who directed the film and previously worked on Shine with Declan.
He explains that having lived with his own nanny for three years he felt like he was able to reference many of his own experiences whilst making the short.
“I think it’s very truthful, when we were going through development we were just piling as much of our own experience into it as we could.”
The dynamic duo are also related, which they believe helped the film to feel “more real”.
“Árón and I are first cousins, so it feels like we’ve been making things together our whole lives,” Declan enthuses.
“We both remember running around our granda’s farmyard with a Sony Ericsson phone recreating scenes from our favourite movies.
“Or going on holiday together and stealing the family video camera and using up all the footage making movies with our cousins and anyone else we could lasso in – so not much has changed,” he laughs.
“But I think we both feel very lucky because we know we can trust each other so completely.”
In addition to having strong working relationship with each other the pair have also managed to rope in the musical talents of Co Clare artist Tara Howley.
“She’s one of the most talented people I’ve ever met, she completely took our film and elevated it to new heights,” says Árón.
“It makes you realise when you see your favourite films how much of an impact the score has on everything else and that’s what Tara’s music has done to our film - it was an absolute gamechanger.”
Although both Declan and Árón admit that due to the calibre of the cast and crew it was hard to keep the film’s run time to a tight 17 minutes.
“It was one location, but we had 49 scenes which was a crazy amount to shoot,” Árón confesses.
“Then Declan and I have to take that and assemble it in the editing room, and I think that was the most difficult part of the process for me personally.”
Declan adds; “So many people will tell you a short film needs to be ideally under 15 minutes.
“But for us the story has to come first, so although our film is 17 minutes 39 seconds long we couldn’t be happier with it because we feel like it is something an audience can sit down, invest their time in and enjoy.”
The film has already toured the US, premiering at the Chicago Irish Film Festival in March, where it was nominated for an award, and featured at the Craic Fest in New York a few days later.
The film was also screened at the Toronto Irish Film Festival earlier this year, where it was up for the Best Short award.
“I think we found out third-hand that we’d been shortlisted for the festival award in Chicago,” laughs Declan.
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“But it was mind blowing especially when I saw the standard of the other films we were alongside, so it was just a massive compliment to us.”
Now preparing to premiere at the Foyle Film Festival on December 1, the cousins say it’s a “dream come true.”
“If I’m being honest, I had tapped out because the competition is so tough the standard in relation to Irish film-making is so high,” Árón admits.
“So, when we found out the film had made it into Foyle it was surreal - we just couldn’t believe it.
“For the Irish premiere to be happening in Derry is amazing. We’re all from the north so it feels like a real homecoming.”
Tickets and additional information at nervecentre.ticketsolve.com
