The Midnight Court and Other Aislings | 1798 Irish Rebellion Short Film | 2019

In which we follow Niamh, a teenage girl in the midst of a brewing rebellion.


1782. Years before the Great Rebellion of 1798, British Army officials have dominion over her small town of Naas. Having smelled the existence of a defiant core, they will stop at nothing to expose it. Niamh feels like the weight of the world lays on her shoulders after her father abandoned her family, the only thing that he left behind being a weathered copy of "The Midnight Court". Niamh sees her mother Iona and her little brother Eamon under the shadow of a dangling sword, so she decides to help the rebels drive the oppressors from Naas. She now has to brave the consequences.

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The 1798 rebellion left a permanent mark on the face of Irish history. Inspired by the American and French Revolutions, it was the chance that the Irish people sought to assert and solidify their independence from the British Empire. The rebellion ultimately failed for multiple complex reasons, and its direct result was the Act of Union of 1801, in which the United Kingdom absorbed Ireland. The Irish never forgot their ancestors' struggles, and the same rebel spirit revived in the early 20th century, when Ireland won its independence after multiple horrific and bloody conflicts. Setting the film before the rebellion openly broke out, allows us to explore a social structure and a family dynamic, in a time where everything is unsure, and every choice could have irreversible outcomes.

We couldn't be more excited to bring you this film now. It is about family, tough choices and conflict, in a country that knows about all three better than most. The disorder of a repressive control over the Irish people is where our rebellion starts and their fate rests on the actions they are yet to take. The dilemmas the people of this period had to face, might strike a familiar chord with more recent or current troubles. Conflict, after all, is where there are sides that raise walls. This is why we find it helpful to look to the past, and seek guidance from unsung heroes, like Niamh. A girl that, despite this terrible historical backdrop, continues to work, sing, fall in love, to feel afraid, angry, to question and lead her own way through all this to dream and hope.

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A million thanks to all the fine folk that supported us via our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, and emotionally through this ambitious project. We love you, this is yours.

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Written & Directed by Alexandros Mattei
Director of Photography: Davey MacDonald
Produced by James Holbrook
Sound by Connor Law Twigg
Edited by Davey MacDonald
Original Score by Orestis Lazarou

Starring: Cat Williams
Sarah Louise Tyler
Brendan Purcell
Stuart McNeill
Bertie Bird

Check out the Behind The Scenes video, made by Rory Williams, over here:
   • Behind The Scenes - The Midnight Cour...  


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