“Our premiere was before 1,000 people,” says Brendan Canty. “I didn’t know cinemas even had 1,000 people. It was nuts.”
The news that Christy, Canty’s debut feature, was to debut at Berlin International Film Festival came as a happy surprise. There was further rejoicing when it took Grand Prix in the Generation 14plus section. The Irish nation has recent history there. Colm Bairéad’s An Cailín Ciúin made its debut in the Generation section three years ago and, after winning two awards, embarked on the long road to an Oscar nomination. Does that feel like pressure?
“I’d noticed that, but, if anything, that was a cool thing,” says Canty, a chatty young Cork man. “I wouldn’t have said I was well versed on what are the best festivals. The fact that An Cailín Ciúin had premiered in the same section was good enough for me. That was really cool. That was amazing.”
Already the recipient of international raves, Christy stars the newcomer Danny Power as a troubled young man who, ejected from foster care, winds up living with his older half-brother, Shane, in a stable family home. Shane, nervous that Christy will bring havoc, insists the arrangement should be temporary, but foster care is hard to find for a young man nearing the age of majority. Over a busy 99 minutes, Christy bounces from dangerous cousins to incorrigible pals to a possible career as a barber. It’s a noisy, energetically acted piece that has flavours of Shane Meadows at his best.
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“The second night it screened in a more low-key kind of indie cinema,” says Canty. “And that brought everything down to earth. It just felt more real. It was an incredible experience.”
Canty, already an experienced pop video director – he broke through with the promo for Hozier’s Take Me to Church – originally shot Christy as a short film. Did he always intend to expand it into a feature?
“We always wanted to write a feature, but we couldn’t crack it,” he says. “So we parked the feature, wrote the short, and then cast it. We came across the Kabin and all those kids and immediately said, ‘We want to do more with them.’”
He refers to the Kabin Studio, a not-for-profit music and creative hub that offers young Cork people a space to sing, create art and, crucially, develop hip-hop skills. Garry McCarthy, Kabin Studio’s creative director – and producer of The Spark, the huge viral hit that the hub’s Kabin Crew had with Lisdoonvarna Crew in the summer of 2024 – suggested to Canty that some of the kids might be interested in fleshing out the early, shorter version of Christy.
“They were all just unbelievable,” says the film-maker. “All the kids pretty much came from this place. It was kind of surreal. So, we just leaned into it. After the short film, Covid happened. Before that I made a music video up there. I ended up doing acting workshops there during Covid. I just became involved and immersed in the world. It kept giving us more and more and more. It became the heartbeat of the film.”
It spikes you up. There was a buzz, and I was able to start making commercials
— Canty on the success of Take Me to Church
The short film generated immediate buzz for Canty and his writer, Alan O’Gorman, after its premiere in 2019.
“In the film world and TV world, people were really losing their mind for it,” says the director. “They could see the potential of something like that. So we had the script, and then we had the short film and it was easy for people to kind of visualise.”
BBC Films soon came on board as producers, and the boys were away.
Christy has much fun with the heavy vernacular of Knocknaheeny, in the northern reaches of Cork city. The dialogue is rich with local slang. One wonders what their international partners made of it all.
“We always thought that was going to be more of a challenge,” says Canty. “But it was never really an issue. If anything the Brits loved that it was from Cork. I think they thought there was an exotic flavour to that! They were very good at listening and guiding us. They knew we were the people who could bring authenticity and specificity to that area, to that project.”
Canty seems an impressively relaxed and confident character. Then again, he is no sort of novice. Over the past few years he has developed a strong reputation in the worlds of music videos and commercials. “They’ve been my film school,” he says.
The shift up seems to have come with his video for Take Me to Church, in 2013. That promo was instrumental in turning Hozier from a cult (if even that) into a genuine phenomenon. The director was confident a breakout was imminent even if those around him were not.
“I was told I was the first ever person to purchase Take Me to Church,” he says. “It was available for free on Bandcamp – or name a price. And I was the first person to name a price, which was cool.”
He remembers being surprised that those around him didn’t grasp the song could be an international hit.
“I was, like, ‘I just think this is bigger.’ And they were, like, ‘No, our plan is just to focus on Ireland for the next year.’ Fair enough. I’ve seen big tracks go f**king nowhere. But they didn’t think much more of it. They wouldn’t admit that now. But then it blew up when it came out. And that changed very quickly.”
The monochrome video went viral and ultimately registered two nominations at the MTV video awards. That is the sort of thing that gets noticed in the industry.
“It spikes you up,” he says. “There was a buzz, and I was able to start making commercials. Then I got signed to a production company, which is cool. I made a few commercials, and the producer of one was able to fund my first short film: For You. I learned a lot from that.”
He says working on commercials and videos doesn’t just educate you about the technical stuff – it teaches you communication skills.
“Being able to handle the pressure – there’s just so much money – and dealing with clients and stuff like that prepared me so well for dealing with the machine of a feature film,” he says. “You’re still answering to the BBC. You’ve got all those heads of departments. I remember when my execs in the BBC came in during pre-production, they were quite impressed by how in control I was of everything on a first feature. They said, ‘Normally our first-time directors are freaking out right now.’”
There were a lot of challenges. Christy features such experienced Cork actors as Chris Walley, from The Young Offenders, and Alison Oliver, from Saltburn, but most of the cast are nonprofessionals – a few rappers among them – encountered in and about the Kabin Studio. Power travelled an unlikely path towards the lead role. He was originally cast in a smaller part for the short, but the film-makers concluded their first choice for lead would not do.
“I told Danny, ‘Well, look, you’re Christy now.’ And he was, like, ‘I’ll be whoever you want me to be.’ I think me giving him the job empowered him. It unlocked something, because, from then on, he was a different actor. He just had the confidence. It was a crazy transformation. He’s just a complete natural.”
Some actors just have it.
“He’s got so much range and he’s got so much intelligence,” says Canty. “He’s kind of a freak and he was from the start – once he got that confidence from the short film. It’s not like he’s way better now.”
It strikes me that putting five or six years between the short and the feature made the latter a very different sort of film. Power was a kid in the first piece. Now he is essentially a young man.
“There was a ticking clock on it, definitely,” says Canty. “And I think we just got there in time. The BBC were saying, ‘We’re not green-lighting this just because your kids are getting older. You need to get it f**king right.’ We got lucky.”
Christy is just the sort of project that launches careers. Canty is considering a TV spin-off from the film. He is working on a feature with a new writer. He is also still processing what just happened.
“Once in a lifetime you come across the right group of people,” he says. “It’s something you can’t force.”
A wry smile as he contemplates the reality.
“I am not in a rush, but when I find whatever it is – or when it finds me – that will be sweet.”
Christy is in cinemas from Friday, August 29th
