Linda is devastated. La Scala, her wonderful bingo hall, is caught in the pincers of development. The council has finally noticed the decay and deterioration and are threatening demolition. And worse: A mile up the valley, Mega Pleasure has been built. The UK's biggest bingo arena. A stream of villagers begin the pilgrimage: the chance to play in the new National Bonanza game and win a million quid. Gavin, the charismatic caller and Linda's lover-elect, soon follows, lured by untold riches and natural fibres. Mr Anzani, Linda's friend, mentor and boss, is distraught. His family of Welsh-Italians have held the hall, in many guises, for over three generations. Is his to be the last?
But Linda discovers she has a gift: she can guess the numbers before they're called. She can decide who wins the games. The pathway to salvation is clear - everyone comes to the lucky hall. But who should she gift the million to? In desperation she seeks her auntie Beth's advice. 'Leave it well alone' is Beth's advice, telling Linda that her (recently deceased) Mother had the same strange abilities. But Linda doesn't leave it and soon finds that some gifts are best left unwrapped.
Human Traffic focuses on the lives and loves of five friends - JIP (played by John Simm), LULU (Lorraine Pilkington), KOOP (Shaun Parkes), NINA (Nicola Reynolds) and MOFF (Danny Dyer) --who suffer their weekday jobs to 'live it large' at the weekends.
Jip and Lulu are having relationship problems: Jip is insecure after failing to perform during several one night stands and Lulu's talent for picking the wrong bloke is getting her down. Nina and Koop have a great relationship - except he doesn't trust her, and Moff, their friendly dealer, is heading for a fast burn out.
Beneath the heady cocktail of music, clubs, drugs and bullshit, Human Traffic is also a film about friendships.
Gregory is a fat lonely telesales specialist who never leaves his flat. His monotonous days are an endless cycle of sales speak, junk TV and constant bingeing. His only contact with the outside world in his doting sister, Rosemary, but their relationship is threatened when he meets Julia on a chat-line.
I Could Read the Sky a film about music, madness memory, love and loss, a haunting story of immigration.
I Could Read the Sky is adapted from the photographic novel of the same name which has been recently published to rave reviews and explores the sense of identity, loss and exile. It is the moving story of an old man living in a bedsit in London, remembering his life, growing up on the West coast of Ireland and his journey to London.
The film unravels the strange twisting drama of a working man's life. It moves from a decaying rural past to a vividly modern present, driven by a dynamic music soundtrack that draws from both, and a simple flowing lyrical story telling. It is the state of memory that the film evokes, not memory as re-enactment but as texture. The film gets to the essence of how we remember. Memory as fragments, as details and layers, memory that comes at you out of the dark. From behind closed eyes, with its abstractions of light and form and sudden moments of precise clarity, taking us on an inward, visually extraordinary labyrinthine journey to the film's end.
The film stars the acclaimed Irish writer Dermot Healy and includes cameos from actors Maria Doyle Kennedy, Brendan Coyle and Stephen Rea, writer Pat McCabe (Butcher Boy) and the author Timothy O'Grady and photographer Steve Pyke.
To re-vitalise his marriage, Lawrence uses CCTV to spy on his wife and place anonymous 'I Saw You' ads in the local paper. Should she meet this mysterious sender?
Max wants to learn to box, but his parents want him to stay a choirboy. After a beating from the local bullies, Max goes to a gym where he finds a vicious boxer.
John breaks down in an English seaside resort and meets the mysterious Daisy. After a passionate moment Daisy leaves suddenly and John realises the truth.
