New TV series based on ‘best Irish novel ever’ to screen this week

The book has been described as 'unfilmable'.

This new adaptation is titled Ulysees, New York and is made by American filmmaker Caveh Zahedi (The Show About the Show). It transposes the events of Joyce's story, which is set in the Irish capital on 16 June 1904, to New York City in 2022.

A work-in-progress version of the introductory episode - the first of a planned 24 episodes - will screen at Belvedere College on Friday, 12 June.

Zahedi will attend the screening, which will also feature a discussion with the filmmaker on the challenges of adapting Joyce.

A first edition copy of James Joyce's Ulysses, widely considered the best Irish novel ever

The event is taking place as part of the Bloomsday Film Festival, which will run from 11 to 16 June in Dublin city, in partnership with the James Joyce Centre.

"Throughout the week leading up to Bloomsday [16 June] itself, the festival features a vibrant selection of short films and features honouring James Joyce and his masterpiece Ulysses, while also celebrating poetry, literature, modernism and the essence of Dublin itself," the organisers have said in a statement.

"Beyond the cinematic delights on offer, there will be a vibrant line-up of live entertainment, including poetry readings, burlesque, music from Gramophone Social and a dazzling Magic Lantern Show."

As for the new Ulysses adaptation, the festival adds: "With Ulysses, New York, Zahedi attempts to do to Joyce’s Ulysses what Joyce did to Homer’s The Odyssey: transpose a canonical work into a new time, place and form.

"The events of 16 June 1904 in Dublin are reimagined as taking place on 16 June 2022 in New York City, on the centenary of the novel’s publication.

"Following eight actors performing in a Bloomsday stage production of Ulysses, the film moves between Joyce’s chapters onstage and the corresponding hours of the actors’ real day."

A still from Ulysses, New York

Other highlights of the Bloomsday Film Festival include the following:

• As part of the Literature Shorts strand, there is a screening of the short poetry film How to Shoot a Ghost, starring Oscar-winning Irish actress Jessie Buckley, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Charlie Kaufman.

• Also in the same strand, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor and Liam O’Maolaí voice the short animation Bog by Éabha Bortolozzo and Jack Kirwan. The film shines a light on mental health issues in rural Ireland.

• As part of the Dublin Short Stories strand, there will be a screening of The Laughing Boys, a spoken word film featuring Mary Murray. The protagonist recounts both joyful childhood memories and painful realities as the final block of St. Theresa’s Gardens in the Liberties awaits demolition.

• The festival will also welcome Estonian filmmaker Raivo Kelomees and sound poet Jaan Malin. They will present Luulur, a documentary exploring sound poetry, an art form rooted in Dadaism, while drawing parallels with Joyce.

• Poets Stephen James Smith and Rafael Mendes will perform at the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Showcase. This event will also include a screening of the short film Anna Liffey, Excerpt (2025), which is based on the poem by Eavan Boland and stars Olwen Fouéré.

• The Magic Lantern Show offers the rare opportunity to experience a full Victorian Magic Lantern show. A sell-out at last year's Bloomsday Film Festival, it is back by popular demand.

• Rounding off the film festival's events, Deirdre Mulrooney’s surrealist short aerial dance film The Clouds are not Inaccessible will screen at the IFI on Bloomsday, Tuesday 16 June. Starring Evanna Lynch of Harry Potter fame, the short is based on a 1932 text by Lucia Joyce and will screen alongside René Clair's 1924 surrealist masterpiece Entr'acte.

Tickets range from free to €10 and are now available. For more information, visit the Bloomsday Festival's website here.