Tarrac

Writer: Eugene O’Brien

Director: Declan Recks

Ireland looks beautiful in Declan Recks’ Irish language film about a women’s rowing team competing for a regional cup. Sports movies come with their rigid narratives from which Tarrac fails to diverge; there are tensions between the team members, a last-minute hitch and some sage and crucial advice from an old hand. It’s all very likeable, if predictable, but fortunately, another story about the lure of home adds some melancholy to this uplifting tale.

Aoife is the prodigal daughter. She returns to her humble family home on the Dingle Peninsula in her new model Audi to care for her cheerless father who’s recovering from a heart attack. Staying for a few weeks, she can’t shake off her Dublin ways, always having to be busy, be that fixing a shelf or painting the outside wall of the cottage. Meanwhile, the tea her father has made her stews in the pot.

She reluctantly agrees to join the rowing team, four women in a naomhóg named St Bridget, when one rower has to pull out injured. Although a competent rower, she hasn’t been in a boat for years as it reminds her too much of her mother who died when she was a teenager. Her mother was a rowing champion, just like her father. Rowing is in her blood, Aoife affirms.

Her Dublin ways prove useful when it comes to making sure her teammates prepare properly for the upcoming race. She even fires one rower for preferring the craic over a gruelling training regime. This action is an odd one in the film as it suggests that the Gaeltacht, the places in Ireland where Irish is still spoken, could benefit from some city vigour. It’s a storyline that is never resolved.

Her cold-hearted dismissal of her teammate makes Aoife a difficult character to like. Kelly Gough’s portrayal is of a woman tormented by the past and troubled by the present. Of course, her mercenary behaviour hides a childhood trauma that is revealed as the eve of the boat race comes closer. But compared to her teammate Jude (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh) who has to balance work, children and training, Aoife lives a privileged life. Able to take weeks off work, she has little to do but train when her father (Lorcan Cranitch) returns to work catching lobsters in the bay.

However, these frustrations in Eugene O’Brien’s story may be deliberate and certainly add some depth to Aoife’s character and more importantly add an edge to what otherwise is a cosy film about female friendship. But the women’s solidarity doesn’t extend to those who like a drink after training. Perhaps Aoife isn’t quite ready to come home just yet.

Tarrac has a UK cinema release from 8th December.