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Patrick McCormack is an Irish farmer/poet. As a descendant of the generations of farmers who have lived off the wild landscape of the Burren in County Clare, his life is deeply intertwined with the land and his rural community. In this cinematically beautiful, uplifting and emotional celebration of people, place and the natural world, director Katrina Costello spent five years capturing this corner of the world and the fateful turn of events that threatened its future. Patrick and his rural community are drawn into a divisive battle with the government, which wants to turn the area into a tourist mecca, thus destroying this sacred and fragile landscape. The Silver Branch is a bittersweet end-of-era evocation and a story of one man’s battle to preserve his ancestral home. Though it is centred around this remarkable man and his search for “unity of being,” it explores more universal themes: the relationship between man and landscape, between tradition and spirit, between body and soul. Heather Haynes.
Co-presented with Toronto Irish Film Festival.