Damage

Colour, 35 mm
Ireland, 2007, 95 min
WP – World premiere
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

The Cahills would pass for a normal, happy, and all around successful family. Emma continues in the lifestyle of her father Aidan and mother Michelle, and begins trying to make it as a model. Hardly anyone suspects that the husband and wife live separate lives, the most important people in which are actually Aidan’s secretary and their family friend John Ward, the father of their daughter’s friend Laurel. The outward image of the socially well-positioned family changes however when the Cahills hold a party to celebrate their daughter’s 21st birthday in their home in an elegant Dublin suburb, and Emma is raped. The girl refuses to silently reconcile herself with her traumatic experience. What chance does she have against her antagonist and his lawyers? How will she find a way to come to terms with what happened to her? And will her friends and family be capable of banding together to help her? This psychological drama by director Aisling Walsh tells of the dark shadows cast on the private and public image of one successful family.

About the director

Aisling Walsh entered the public stage with her short films (such as Hostage, which was shot while she was studying at the National Film School and which won her awards at the Chicago Film Festival and the Tours Film festival). She successfully made her way in television (with the serial Trial and Retribution, 1997, the homosexual love story Forgive and Forget, 2000, the story of emancipated mothers in the 1960’s, Sinners, 2002, and the drama Fingersmith, 2005, nominated for the BAFTA award, among others). The talented director found success off the small-screen with the movie Joyriders (1989) and in particular with the dramatic tale of the fortunes of an idealistic teacher in a boy’s reform school set in 1930s Ireland, Song for a Raggy Boy (2002), in which the lead role was played by Aidan Quinn, and which was screened in competition at Karlovy Vary in 2003.