Short film gets RTÉ airing on writer's birthday

‘Prison Door’, a short film directed and produced by Cavan film-maker Kevin McCann, based on a screenplay penned by Dermot Healy, will be broadcast on RTÉ television on November 9, marking the late writer’s birthday.

It’s the last screenplay written by Healy before his untimely death in 2014, and specifically for McCann’s award-winning production company, ‘Macanna Teoranta’.

The duo came up with the idea following a meeting of minds in Sligo, not far from Healy’s home at Ballyconnell, overlooking the Atlantic Coast.

It began with a walk along Streedagh Beach, the whisper of the rolling waves through stiffened beach grass an undertone to their cogitating.

Sandy footsteps took the men next to Lisadell House and then the hugely popular Ellen’s Pub, before rounding off their tour of the Wild Atlantic Way at Yeat’s Tavern in Drumcliffe. Seated at a corner table, it’s where McCann asked to take a photo of the generally retiring Healy, but who on this occasion acquiesced with little fuss.

“I remember specifically him putting his arm on the table, like a chieftain showing his sword,” laughs McCann.

“It took a while for the final screenplay [for ‘Prison Door’] to take shape. But it needed that, and once it did, the proof is there of another great work by one of Ireland’s finest writers,” says McCann.

The tone ‘Prison Door’ sets is described as ‘Kafkaesque’, borne of discussion about the jobs Healy himself held as a younger man.

“Labouring jobs, security, and then he had this job in a prison. He spoke about those who stayed in their prison cells all the time, never left, even for their daily time out. We quickly realised there was something in that. Why do people remain, even in something as jarring as being locked away, when they have the opportunity, to escape from it. It’s a great metaphor for our own lives,” McCann muses.

Institutionalisation of or through choice is something Healy thought deeply about, adds McCann, who says of the ‘Prison Door’ screenplay: “It’s quite a pure script, and a real pleasure to have something of a Healy original and to translate that onto screen.”

Filmed over three days in 2014 in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh Prison near Belfast, ‘Prison Door’ features actor Ciaran Flynn (Hunger/Robin Hood) as lead.

Joseph Doherty from Cavan was enlisted by McCann as production designer for the project.

By chance, whilst filming, Kevin’s inquiring mind took him away from the bustle to another room where he found an old rusted weighing scales, the type used by prison officers and officials to measure prisoners as their bodies wasted while on hunger strike.

“It brought it all back,” recalls Kevin of that stark moment. “The idea of what might have happened there, less than 40 years ago.”

Deep consideration therefore went into just how the screenplay would be portrayed, explains McCann.

Much of the filming was done using a jib-arm instead of a camera mounted on a tri-pod or track. The “unusual” method offered McCann and his team greater freedom, particularly given the narrow confines of the cell they were working within. The movement lends also to a foreboding sense of panic and increasing claustrophobic isolation.

Among other accolades, ‘Prison Door’ went on to win Best Experimental film at Ibiza Cinefest 2017, was a finalist for Photography Award at Chill Theatre Cafe, and Runner Up at the Respect Human Rights Film Festival 2017.

“The script lends itself to a certain feeling. Dermot and I discussed this in terms of a jail out in the desert, and we couldn’t let go of that image. We wanted it to look quite poetic.”

Healy died not long after filming had concluded.

“He never got to seen the final finish,” laments Kevin, who pays tribute to the depth of creative generosity shown to him and others by Healy during his life.

“He was the writer’s writer. He wasn’t a mainstream writer and was willing to tackle subjects which fascinated him.”

He adds: “Spiritual is the wrong word but [Healy] was a pure spirit in himself, a very kind person and it’s worth mentioning that Dermot did give a lot to other writers and artists throughout his career. He was very generous, always willing to be a guide and mentor, and he was to me as well, with ‘Prison Door’ he was very supportive of my career as a film-maker and I will always be grateful to him for that.”

‘Prison Door’ was an Ireland/Estonia/UK co-production, supported by ARRI Cameras (Germany), the Screen Director’s Guild of Ireland, Cavan Arts Office, and co-produced by the Oscar-nominated AllFilm (Estonia/Tangerines) and YellowMoon post-production (UK/Game of Thrones).

It had its world premiere at the Clones Film Festival in 2015, which previously hosted another of McCann’s award-winning shorts, ‘Volkswagen Joe’.