Tarrac: Irish-language sports movie pulls its weight

A bracing setting, strong maritime photography and firebrand performances help this Irish-language drama – a sporting underdog tale of the old school – shrug off a layer of cliche and crash bouncily across the sun-split Kerry surf. It would require a weight of cynicism to resist its charms.

To be fair, one of those cliches is quite particular. Many is the domestic film that finds a young person return to – or just continue to endure – a difficult dad in rural Ireland. Lorcan Cranitch played a similar role in Robert Higgins and Patrick McGivney’s fine Lakelands. In Tarrac, which premiered at the same Galway Film Fleadh, that great actor is back as grumpy father to spirited Aoife (Kelly Gough). Arriving back in the Kingdom after the old man has a heart attack, she initially has a little trouble shaking off her urban pretensions and reconnecting with old pals. But, soon enough (maybe a little too soon), she finds herself recruited into the local rowing team. Aoife and the rest do their business in the wood-and-tar vessels known as naomhógs. They are strong, but do not look like favourites to win the Munster title.

Well, you know how those things go. They recruit an unlikely outsider in the person of Rachel Feeny as unpretentious Naomie and encounter more than a few hiccups on the way to the inevitable closing showdown. If you have trouble following the action, a commentator from local radio is on hand to clarify any confusion. It’s Rocky. It’s Chariots of Fire. They’re a little too good for it to be Cool Runnings.

Screenwriter Eugene O’Brien introduces just enough conflict to allow Aoife a character arc without edging into contrivance. There is a danger of too much “gas and crack” in the revelry, but the actors have sufficient charm to shuffle such objections into the undergrowth. Ultimately, the leanness of the project proves a virtue. Declan Recks, now a hugely experienced director, brushes aside complications to propel us inexorably towards the back-breaking denouement. This is a film rich in characters, but what most sticks in the memory is the haul of wood on brine. Very worthwhile.