Inchydoney’s coast route inspires new road movie

THE beauty of West Cork and the coast road from Inchydoney inspired a movie featuring some of the Irish film industry’s best-known names.

The movie The Last Right was filmed here last year and opened in cinemas last weekend. It features actors Brian Cox (The Bourne Identity, Braveheart), Colm Meaney (The Snapper, Layer Cake, Star Trek), Michael McElhatton (Game of Thrones, Chernobyl) and Jim Norton (Bishop Brennan in Father Ted, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas), and tells the story of Daniel (Michiel Huisman) who finds himself, along with his autistic younger brother, Louis (Samuel Bottomley) and Mary (Niamh Algar), a young mortician, transporting a coffin complete with a body, from Clonakilty in Co Cork, to Rathlin Island in Co Donegal.

Speaking with The Southern Star, writer/director Aoife Crehan said that she never questioned her choice of West Cork when it came to shooting The Last Right.

‘I spend loads of time in Clonakilty as my folks have a small apartment in Inchydoney, so I go there to write at every opportunity,’ Aoife said. ‘It’s so peaceful and beautiful, definitely my favourite place to write in the world. I wrote most of the script for The Last Right there.’

‘I think there are so many things in the script that just came from me spending time in Clonakilty. If I hadn’t spent as much time in Inchydoney, I don’t think I would’ve written it.’

The countryside and the people of Clonakilty also played an important part when Aoife and her crew set up their cameras.

‘I used to cycle the road from Inchydoney to Clonakilty for breaks and groceries, and I just totally fell in love with that coast road, which inspired the whole journey of the film, from Clonakilty to Rathlin island,’ Aoife said.

‘The light and the scenery in Inchydoney and Clonakilty is just so stunning and so special, we just had to shoot there.’

‘And Scally’s in Clon kept us well fed through many drafts of the script. Scally’s is the best supermarket I’ve ever seen in my whole life!’

The Guardian in the UK gave it three out of five stars, and said it ‘is predictable but fits like a well-worn onesie’, and expanded on this idea, explaining: ‘You know exactly what shape it’s going to be once you’re wrapped up in it, but that doesn’t mean it lacks for comfort and warmth.’

The Last Right, which has been described by some as an Irish Rain Man, is now on release and on show at the Park Cinema in Clonakilty and at the Cinemax in Bantry.