Film review: Ann is a heartbreaking look at a national tragedy
Zara Devlin in 'Ann'.
- Ann
- ★★★★☆
Set in Granard on January 31, 1984, (16s) tells the story of Ann Lovett’s (Zara Devlin) final day — we already know, as the film begins, that the heavily pregnant Ann will later give birth in a grotto and afterward lose her life.
With the tragedy foretold, writer-director, Ciaran Creagh, emphasises the normality of the 15-year-old’s life: the camera follows her in very close proximity, almost peering over her shoulder, so that it feels as if we are walking in her footsteps as she goes skulking about her home and avoiding her family as she gets ready for school.
It’s a strikingly naturalistic performance from Zara Devlin in what is her first main role, and Creagh deftly accentuates Ann’s relatively young age and her impossible situation of being young, unmarried and pregnant in ‘a God-fearing place such as Granard’ — the early stages set the tone, as we watch Ann writing what is effectively her farewell note in a bedroom where a teddy bear takes pride of place on the bed.
Some of the details are a touch anachronistic — it’s unlikely, although possible, that a woman as young as Ann’s mother Patricia (Eileen Walsh) would don a headscarf before heading off to mass on a weekday — but when the focus is on Ann herself, the impending heartbreak becomes almost unbearable.
Eileen Walsh and Ian Beattie, the latter playing Ann’s father Diarmuid, provide strong support in a film that is quietly profound, and not least when we keep a lonely vigil with Ann as she endures her agonies in the grotto.
(cinema release)
