Song for a Raggy Boy (2003)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Aisling Walsh

Writers:

Aisling Walsh (writer) &
Kevin Byron Murphy (writer) ...

Release Date:

22 August 2003 (Denmark)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Four walls. One faith. No identity.

Plot:

"Song for a Raggy Boy" is based on the true story of a single teacher's courage to stand up against an untouchable prefect's sadistic disciplinary regime and other abuse in a Catholic Reformatory and Industrial School in 1939 Ireland.

Plot Keywords:

Boy | Strap | Abuse | Reformatory | Teacher

Awards:

14 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Aidan Quinn	...	William Franklin
Iain Glen	...	Brother John
Marc Warren	...	Brother Mac
Dudley Sutton	...	Brother Tom
Alan Devlin	...	Father Damian
Stuart Graham	...	Brother Whelan
John Travers	...	Liam Mercier 636
Chris Newman	...	Patrick Delaney 743
Andrew Simpson	...	Gerard Peters 458
Mark Butler	...	Downey 913
Bernard Manning	...	Rogers 855
Samuel Bright	...	Ryan 126
Robert Sheehan	...	O Reilly 58
Caoimhin 'Tojo' Barra Doherty	...	Murphy 338 (as Caoimhin 'Tojo' Barry Doherty)
Michael McGee	...	Lynch 76

Also Known As:

Drengene fra Skt. Judes (Denmark)
Los Ninos de San Judas (Spain: Catalan title)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

Ireland | UK | Denmark | Spain

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R16 | Ireland:15PG

Filming Locations:

County Cork, Ireland

Company:

Fantastic Films

A terrible catalogue of abuse

The catalogue of abuse perpetrated by the clergy in Ireland against the children in their care has long been in the public domain. Tentatively only now is the cinema beginning to address the issue, firstly with Peter Mullan's "The Magdalene Sisters", which wavered between broad comedy and tragedy to disconcerting effect and now with Aisling Walsh's superb "Song for a Raggy Boy", an altogether bleaker affair; indeed at times this is virtually unwatchable so intense is the brutality it depicts.

Aidan Quinn is the first lay-teacher in an Irish reform school run by the Christian Brothers, (hardly an apt term), in the Ireland of 1939. The system of abuse he encounters is so all encompassing that he seems powerless to do anything about it despite winning the approval of the boys. This is a deeply troubling, (and in the end, very moving) film beautifully directed by the young Irish director Aisling Walsh whose lack of technique is all the more unsettling.

It is also superbly played, in particular by the boys, non-professionals all and by Quinn, Iain Glen as the sadistic and evil brother at the centre, Marc Warren as the weak-willed, sexually driven brother, (his is the most emotionally complex character), and by that great and undervalued British actor Dudley Sutton. Flashbacks to Quinn's part in the Spanish Civil War may be ill-judged but this remains a spare, unsettling film which should be mandatory viewing for Catholics everywhere.