Jimmy's Hall
| Jimmy's Hall | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Ken Loach |
| Produced by | Rebecca O'Brien |
| Screenplay by | Paul Laverty |
| Starring |
Barry Ward Simone Kirby Jim Norton |
| Cinematography | Robbie Ryan |
| Edited by | Mike Andrews |
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Release date
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Running time
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106 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom Ireland France |
| Language | English |
Jimmy's Hall is a 2014 Irish-French-British drama film directed by Ken Loach. The film tells the story of the deportation to the United States in 1933 of Jimmy Gralton, who led the Revolutionary Workers' Group, a precursor of the Irish Communist Party, in Leitrim. It stars Irish actor Barry Ward, along with Simone Kirby, Jim Norton and Denise Gough. The title refers to a rural dance hall built by Gralton.
It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.
In 1932, after ten years in the United States, Jimmy Gralton returns to his native Ireland to help his mother run the family farm. A new government is in power in Ireland ten years after the end of the Civil War. To meet the needs of the young people of County Leitrim, Jimmy, in spite of his reluctance to cause upset to his old enemies (the Church and the local landowners), decides to reopen the "Hall", a young people's centre, free and open to all, where the local young people meet to dance, study or talk. Success comes quickly, but the growing influence of Jimmy and his radical ideas are not to the taste of everyone in the village.
The film centres around political tensions between the Catholic church, the state and the republican movement to which Jimmy through his pre-emigration history is connected. Jimmy's political alignment is central to the film, he suffers for being a free-thinker and committed to the liberation of ordinary people through education and also by having experience from America of jazz (the rhythms and passions of "darkest Africa" are warned against in one church sermon warning of the perils of the "Hall"). Jimmy is aligned to communism by the communist support and encourage participation in the study and dancing that evolve as key activities at the "Hall".
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