Daithí Ó. Cinnéide | Eadrainn Féin (Between Us) / 2016

exploring gender

by Douglas Messerli

 

Daithí Ó. Cinnéide (screenplay and director) Eadrainn Féin (Between Us) / 2016 [11 minutes]

 

This gay short film by Irish director Daithí Ó. Cinnéide is one of the very few gay films, and even a smaller number of works on transgender issues written and acted in Gaelic. Between Us is also one of the few gentle comic works on the subject, making it a very rare kind of work in LGBTQ+ cinematic canon.

      The young hero of this work, Uinsionn (Cian Ó Baoill) lives alone with his father in a small farming community in a Gaeltacht, one of the regions of Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Mayo, Cork, Waterford, and Meath in Ireland where the Gaelic language is still predominant, and, in this case, where every move of every individual is most carefully watched. 

     We first witness Uinsionn on a morning when, dressed for school, he quickly downs a glass a milk and is about to run to the shared car-ride to school before his father Mick (John Keane), sitting across from him at the table, loudly clears his throat, forcing the boy to come back for his apple.

      The father begins his daily chores, which seems to consist of racking the hay in his barn and lugging heavy sacks of horse manure from a van, work with which Uinsionn, when returned from school, helps him.

 

      The next morning, Mick is again at the breakfast table reading his newspaper as he calls for his son to get dressed for school. Uinsionn shows up, quickly grabbing his apple, the boy dressed in a short skirt, disappearing to catch the ride to school. Mick looks as if he’s seen a ghost, while the boys in the car look on aghast, now knowing quite how to respond.

        Out with the cows, Mick attempts to call a neighbor friend, Patricia, but can’t reach her. When his son returns home, Mick is waiting, asking if it is a joke, a kind of trick. But Uinsionn dismisses him and hurries off into his room, leaving his father to worry alone.

        The next morning as the boy waits, again in a skirt, no car shows up. He gets out his bicycle and makes his own way to school.

         Mick goes about his chores, but his heart is not in it. And when his son finally returns home from school he determines to confront him. But when he sees Uinsionn, he realizes that he’s been slugged in the eye, his clothes have been torn.

      Mick enters his room, and without saying anything, hands him a bag of ice. Somewhat begrudgingly, he puts it up to his eye. Meanwhile, we observe Mick on the computer checking out articles about “transgender.” He tries a call to his neighbor Patricia once again, but she declares she’s too busy at the moment. Obviously, Mick is seeking out the advice of a woman, having lost his wife in the past year.

         Later, Mick is hanging out the laundry, where he finds a lipstick container in one of his son’s pockets. But at that every moment, Uinsionn calls for his father; it’s time to the football game on TV. They watch it together, involved as they have both been obviously many a time.

         When the phone rings, this time it is Patricia calling him, asking why hasn’t she heard “it” from him instead of through the neighbors. When he asks, “what story,” she replies, “Uinsionn. And you said it wasn’t important.” But this time it is Mick who can’t be bothered by her gossip and challenges her for accusing him for allowing his son to go around as a “freak.” And this time he hangs up on her.

          When the boy again retreats to his room, Mick insists they have to talk. Asking him to come out, he reminds him that the house is his as well. But Uinsionn insists that they live in two different worlds.

          Mick argues that he didn’t seem to feel that a few days earlier. But the boy seems angry, claiming there is nothing to talk about with him except football. “I thought you liked football?”

          “I do,” responds Uinsionn, “but football isn’t everything.”

          “I didn’t know you so unhappy.”

          “Well, there are a lot of things you didn’t know about me.”

          “You can say that again. When you came down the other morning, I didn’t recognize you.”

          “That’s the first time I recognized myself.”

          All Mick can do through the closed door between them, is remind the boy that he is his father, now and forever.

 

         When his son returns to the living room, his father has put on another TV station, imagining that his son might prefer it, but Uinsionn insists he put the match back on.

           After a few moments, he turns to his son and wonders: “Is Uinsionn still your name?

           The boy looks puzzled. “What?”

           “People change their names sometimes, like Suzy or Margaret.”

           A smile creeps over his son’s face. “Where did you hear that?”

           “I was on Google earlier today.”

           Uinsionn openly smiles as the credits begin their scroll.

          This lovely attempt at communication between father and son facing an almost inconceivable gap is truly heartening, made perhaps a bit more comic since its clear that Uinsionn is not totally committed to a gender change but is simply exploring the territory, testing the waters so to speak. Whether or not he goes further, he at least knows now that he still has his father’s love and his help in whatever direction he might seek out. A black eye means little when you have the love of the parent waiting at home. 

 

Los Angeles, September 24, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (September 2023).