Festival

Released in 2005, ‘Festival’ is a dramatic comedy written and directed by Annie Griffin. This British movie won five awards and was nominated in nine major categories for various awards in the film industry. The movie is about the interconnected stories of unrelated individuals during an arts festival in Scotland. It was beautifully and artistically shot during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2004.

The movie centres on Faith (played Lyndsey Marshal) who arrives in the crowded city of Edinburgh to experience the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and to perform her solo play about Dorothy Wordsworth. During her roaming about the art festival, she meets and befriends Brother Mike (Clive Russell), who has travelled to Edinburgh to give a seductive and sexual performance as a paedophile priest. However, it is eventually revealed later in the movie that he is indeed a paedophile priest. The scene shifts to an Irish stand-up comedian, Tommy O’Dwyer (Chris O’Dowd), who can only find happiness and satisfaction by seducing and luring Joan Gerrard (Daniela Nardini), a beautiful local radio host. Nardini plays the role of a radio host trying her best to capture every single and precious moment of the festival to prove her skill in broadcasting and event hosting. Although she shows great sincerity, devotion, and professionalism in her work, during an on-air interview with Tommy they have a vocal argument. Later on, an antagonistic relationship develops between them. Aside from being a radio host, Joan is also one of the respected jurors of the Comedy Awards committee. However, the annoyance that Tommy brings to Joan is reciprocated by antagonism to him by the famous comedian Sean Sullivan (Stephen Mangan). Sean spends his time annoying every person he meets and sees in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, especially Joan and their fellow committee members in the Comedy Awards. His favourite subject matter of annoyance is Petra (Raquel Cassidy), his alcoholic assistant. Also starring in the movie is Lucy Punch, playing Nicky Romanowski, an ambitious, young, hack comedian and one of the nominees for a major comedy award together with Tommy.

The movie displays well-paced and well-plotted scenes, which accurately depict the really hectic scenario of a crowded arts festival. The characters reveal superlative acting in virtually every scene of the movie. They perfectly capture the madness of people and of the festival itself, even though the plot is somewhat confusing and might even be considered to be irrelevant. The movie teaches us to be happy and to cherish the moments of happiness we find in our lives. It implies that despite the crucial and difficult situations in which we may find ourselves, happiness must always be with us. The movie is highly recommended to viewers who love comedies as well as to those who feel a need to be cheered up. Due to some overtly sexual scenes and strong language, the movie is not suited for very young audiences. The film will surely lift up our spirits and inspire us to struggle in our everyday life.