- Film & TV
- 19 Nov 18
Religion, psychology and politics are all powerfully explored in Rebecca Daly's stunning new film, Good Favour.
Rebecca Daly is fast becoming one of Ireland's most intriguing filmmakers. Her movies The Other Side Of Sleep and Mammal examine the complicated connections between characters who are outsiders, looking for a sense of home. She continues this theme in Good Favour, an atmospheric and unnerving exploration of faith and power. Suitably for an enigmatic film, it was itself inspired by a mystery. "I read an article about a young guy who walked out of the Black Forest into Berlin and said he couldn't remember who he was, or what had happened to him," explains Daly. "I was very intrigued by that and what the possibilities of him were. He went through a lot of social services facilities and psychological testing, and they didn't know if he was a refugee or suffering from PTSD."
In Daly's film, she uses the idea of a stranger emerging from the woods to explore concepts of faith, truth and power. Vincent Romeo plays Tom, an enigmatic teenager who appears as if from nowhere, interrupting life in a fundamentalist Christian village. As he becomes part of the community, some odd incidents occur and the children of the village become convinced that he is the messiah. But is Tom a figure of good, of evil - or is he just a boy? The tale touches on religion and psychology, but Daly was also interested in the contemporary political relevance.