Welcome to rural Ireland, summer 1975. It is All-Ireland Football Final weekend, and the local pub has just bought a colour TV for the occasion.
However, the mood of this small village has been dampened by the discovery of a body in Ruán Magan’s directorial take on Sheena Lambert’s screenplay, based on her novel The Lake.
The dead woman in the lake is immediately written off by locals as a straggler from when the cemetery was moved many years ago. This explanation suits young Peggy Casey (Eleanor O’Brien), who has run her family pub since her parents died. Murmurs of murder are bad for business, and she needs said business to be booming to dissuade her siblings from pushing to sell the building.
Unfortunately for Peggy, Dublin detective Frank Ryan (Moe Dunford) thinks there is something a lot more sinister to this than a mislocated corpse. The clues are pieced together from the elder locals, providing flashbacks to the 50s when much of the village was first put underwater to make way for a power station.
Eleanor O’Brien’s IFTA-nominated turn as Peggy, a determined and steadfast 23-year-old with the world on her shoulders, is wonderfully engaging
When it comes to Irish-language cinema, An Cailín Ciúin is always going to be the comparison, but as Irish-language filmmaking grows, we have to expect a range of genres and intentions. Despite an emotional climax, Báite does not quite have the emotional gut punch of An Cailín Ciúin. It is, however, a fine example of the murder-mystery genre.
Aesthetically heightened, at times it feels much like a Douglas Sirk or even Max Ophüls-style Hollywood melodrama, with its sweeping score and technicolour postcard visuals. The pastiche vibe of the proceedings feels a little more Quiet Man than Quiet Girl, but that can be a good thing. It’s a welcome change from the greyness we have come to expect from Irish TV crime dramas. Báite is bright and very ‘Irish’-looking without veering into the dreaded Paddywhackery territory.
Moe Dunford proves himself as versatile as ever as the visiting detective, with All-Ireland tickets burning a hole in his pocket, and Eleanor O’Brien’s IFTA-nominated turn as Peggy, a determined and steadfast 23-year-old with the world on her shoulders, is wonderfully engaging. The lush IFTA-winning score matches the beautiful surroundings and richly detailed production design. There’s a lot of ambition here bumping up against a budget.
It will not redefine Irish-language cinema or the murder-mystery genre, but Báite is an immersive rural tale with a couple of surprises up its sleeve and will keep you guessing until the end.
Báite is in cinemas from Friday, 6 March.