The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin)

Cáit is a nine year-old girl from an over-crowded, dysfunctional and impoverished family. Quietly struggling at school and at home, she has learnt to hide in plain sight from those around her. As summer arrives and her pregnant mother’s due date approaches, Cáit (Catherine Clinch) is sent to live with distant relatives. Without knowing when she will return home, she is left at the strangers’ house with only the clothes she is wearing. The Kinsellas, a middle-aged couple she has never met, dress the girl in what clothes they have. They are farming people, like her own, but hard-working and wanting for nothing, it seems. Despite a warm reception from the woman, Eibhlín (Carrie Crowley), the man of the house, Seán (Andrew Bennett), keeps his distance from Cáit and she from him, but over time, their strained relationship begins to deepen. Slowly, in the care of the Kinsellas, Cáit blossoms and discovers a new way of living. But in this house where affection grows and there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one painful truth.

"A silent child is sent away to live with foster parents on a farm in this gem of a film from first-time feature director Colm Bairéad. This beautiful and compassionate film, based on the novella Foster by Claire Keegan, is a child’s-eye look at our fallen world; already it feels like a classic." - The Guardian