To the Western World (1981)

Original title

To The Western World

Directed by

Margy Kinmonth

Genre

drama

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

1h

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary follows playwright JM Synge and artist JB Yeats as they travel through western Ireland in 1905. The film dramatizes their journey reporting on poverty and economic conditions for a newspaper.

historicalinformativeleisurely pacedobservationalearnestnostalgicunderstated

What happens

To the Western World is a 1981 documentary film directed by Margy Kinmonth. Narrated by John Huston and starring Niall Tóibín, Patrick Laffan, Tom Hickey (actor) & Brendan Cauldwell, the film charts the journey of playwright JM Synge and artist JB Yeats through Connemara in 1905. The two men were sent by the Manchester Guardian to report on the 'Congested Districts', the most poverty-stricken and over populated parts of the West of Ireland. The film is the first dramatisation of the original articles, which disappeared for decades after their publication. On their journey they described the economic conditions, poverty, unemployment, dress and livestock. The film has previously won the European Community Award and was nominated for the Fiction Award at the Cork Film Festival. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Yeats Country (1965)
• Cradle of Genius (1961)
• Reflections: Ireland (1978)
• Barry Lyndon (1975)
• Traveller (1981)
• Before Hindsight (1977)
• A Fanatic Heart: Geldof On Yeats (2016)
• Maeve (1981)