After 20 years of absence, as man (Jonathan Ryan) returns to the place
he was born and grew up in, an idyllic strip of land somewhere in rural
Ireland. He stops at a pub for some coffee, to find it empty safe for a
local (Jon Kenny) warming himself at the place's fire, drinking whiskey
after whiskey, and very obviously being desparate for someone to talk to.
And after doing small talk at length, the local opens up about his son ...
who committed suicide only last year,and as he talks about this (and other
suicides) more and more, it seems he tries to hang onto his son through
telling the story again and again, but at the same time, he brings whoever
he's talking to in touch with mortality, even in an idyllic strip of land
just like this. A Day for the Fire is a pleasantly
unexcited film about rather grace topics, a film that (even at short
running time of just over 20 minutes) takes its time to unfold its story
and is carried in equal parts by two great performances and
beautiful camerawork that gets the most out of the locations and scenery,
all held together by a subtle directorial effort, that doesn't
over-emphasize on the graveness of the matter but succeeds in telling its
story in a laid-back yet powerful way. A really very nice one!
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