Six Shooter cast sweat on BAFTA decision

Irish playwright Martin McDonagh is facing an anxious week as his debut short film is destined for the prestigious BAFTA awards next weekend.

McDonagh’s 30-minute grim comedy Six Shooter stars a strong Irish cast including Brendan Gleeson, alongside his son Domnhall in his first on screen appearance, Ruaidhri Conroy and Aisling O’Sullivan.

Domnhall Gleeson said it was absolutely brilliant that the debut short had earned a rare nomination for the British Academy Film and Television Awards.

“I think I’m probably more chuffed than anybody despite the fact it is only a small part,” the 21-year-old said. “I think it is great that an Irish movie is really hitting home over in England.”

The black comedy, which also stars David Wilmot from Intermission and Gary Lydon from Ordinary Decent Criminal, follows a train journey home through rural Ireland, as the lives of several strangers intertwine on the trip.

Hollywood star Brendan Gleeson, who has been in numerous films including Troy and Cold Mountain, plays a man whose wife had just died that morning.

He happens upon a strange young man, played by Ruaidhri Conroy, famed for his younger role in Into the West and Hart’s War. The young man’s outlandish behaviour sets in motion a series of bloody events.

Conroy, 26, said his slightly psychotic character was a great part.

He added: “The script is very good, so it was very enjoyable. It is good that it has done well, and it is a good short film I think.

“We made it all on a train going up and down in Waterford on the one piece of line over the space of a week, so it was really short time-wise.”

Gleeson, who is currently studying Media Arts at Dublin Institute of Technology, said he had worked with the writer and director McDonagh in a previous stage production in the West End.

“I was in good hands, you know my Dad was doing it, they were all really classy actors,” he said. “A tiny, tiny, tiny scene. It is practically nothing in the film but I think I was probably more nervous than anyone else going into it as it was my first time, although it was Martin’s first time directing as well.”

The writer and director, McDonagh, is already an accomplished playwright, however, Six Shooter is his first film.

The Tony Award winning playwright’s works including The Pillowman and The Lieutenant of Inishmore have graced dozens of stages.

Six Shooter has already scooped several awards including Best First Short Film at the Cork Film Festival and an accolade at the Foyle Film Festival last year.

The short, which was a collaboration between the Irish Film Board, Ireland’s national screen agency and Film Four Lab, will be broadcast shortly on Channel 4 and there are plans to release it in theatres across the country in partnership with a full length film.

The BAFTA awards take place on February 12.