Search icon

Movies & TV

01st Apr 2018

One of the best Irish films in recent years is on television tonight and it stars Evanna Lynch of Harry Potter fame

Michael Lanigan

The film was shot by a director paralysed with motor neurone disease.

If you’re wrecked from all the Easter egg hunts and planning to stay in for Sunday evening you may want to switch over to TV3 to catch the overlooked modern Irish classic: My Name Is Emily.

Starring Evanna Lynch, AKA Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter and Michael Smiley (Black Mirror, Spaced, Free Fire), the film tells the story of a girl who is sent to a foster home following the death of her mother.

Taking place on her 16th birthday, she decides to run away with a school mate after she doesn’t receive a card from her father. Having been committed to a psychiatric institution, Emily makes it her task to help him escape the hospital.

The only film to be directed by the late Simon FitzMaurice, who passed away in October 2017 after a lengthy battle with motor neurone disease, My Name Is Emily is an achievement all the more remarkable considering he was confined to a motorised wheelchair and extremely limited in his physical movement.

His struggle to make the film was recently charted in the award-winning documentary, It’s Not Yet Dark, which was directed by Frankie Fenton and narrated by Colin Farrell.

Earning praise from Irish critics, in addition My Name Is Emily was nominated for eight awards at the 2015 Irish Film and Television Awards, including Best Film.

Clip via – Scannain

My Name Is Emily is on TV3 tonight – Sunday 1 April – at 9pm.

LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge