Lochlainn McKenna, the writer and director behind the Oscar long-listed and IFTA nominated short film Two for the Road, is coming back to West Cork for his next short film venture and he’s looking for locals to join the cast.

Two for the Road was shot along the Beara peninsula and produced by Skibbereen woman Gráinne Dwyer and Natalie Britton. It received rave reviews, and McKenna is headed back west for his next project, Supply Run.

Supply Run revolves around nine-year-old Ukrainian refuge Iryna, who is forced to move with her Mum from Ukraine to Sherkin Island following the Russian invasion on their country.

Soon after arriving, and with her mother not well, Iryna must embark on a journey to the mainland on her own to seek supplies for them both.

It’s here, on this Halloween day, that she meets local man Fintan and a journey beyond borders and language begin as the duo strike up a relationship beyond words

McKenna, who’s a city boy, says he spent a huge amount of his childhood driving around West Cork. 

‘When I was looking for locations for Two For The Road I went over to Sherkin Island and I heard about the Ukrainians living on the island. I had filmed in Kiev the year before the invasion and have a lot of love for Ukraine and for the Ukrainian people.’

‘They are going through a tremendous suffering at the minute and I thought there was something so fascinating, tragic, yet hopeful about all of these people having to move to this tiny island off the coast of Cork. There’s over 50 Ukrainians living on the island at the minute, and they’ve been really endearingly dubbed the ‘Sherkranians’ now. There was even a baby born on the island not so long ago. It’s a really beautiful story and one I’m dying to tell.’

Jamie Tarr, the producer of Supply Run, added that the story is intimate, ‘beautiful, and accessible’.

‘We’re in the middle of casting at the minute but as we get closer to production we’ll really be looking to get the community involved and we’re hoping that the people of Baltimore and Sherkin will be interested and want to be involved. It’s a hopeful story. A little bit of a shining light in the dark.’

The film will be shooting in April this year and will be an Irish, UK and Ukrainian co-production. For more information check out Supply Run Short Film on Instagram.

Lochlainn’s previous work includes collaborations with electronic artist Daithí, as well as success on the writing front with his short story entitled Guinness & Coke nominated for the RTÉ Francis McManus Short Story competition. That story, based on his own tumultuous weekends as a child with his vagabond father, is now on the Junior Certificate curriculum, and was subsequently turned into the short film Two For The Road.