Bord Scannán na hÉireann / Irish Film Board,
RTÉ and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland
with Windmill Lane Pictures
present
A
Treasure Entertainment
Production
The Flag
85 mins. • 2016 • Ireland
PRODUCTION CO.
Treasure Entertainment
The Copper House
St Kevin’s Cottages
Dublin 8
Phone: +353 1 4758820
Email: [email protected] / [email protected]
PUBLICITY CONTACT
Nell Roddy
Element Pictures Distribution
21 Mespil Road
Dublin 4
Phone: +353 1 6185032
Email: [email protected]
The FLag
Directed by
Declan Recks
Screenplay by
Eugene O’Brien
Produced by
Rebecca O’Flanagan, Robert Walpole
Director of Photography
Cathal Watters
Film Editor
Dermot Diskin
Production Designer
Mark Kelly
Costume Designer
Allison Byrne
Hair & Make-up Designer
Louise Myler
Casting Director
Colin Jones
Music by
Stephen McKeon
Principal Cast
Harry Hambridge
Pat Shortt
Mouse Morrissey
Moe Dunford
Liz
Simone Kirby
Charlie
Ruth Bradley
Blacksod
Brian Gleeson
Hammer
Peter Campion
2
Tagline
We are the soldiers of destiny… Seriously.
Short Synopsis / Logline
Harry Hambridge is a down-on-his-luck paddy living in London. In one day he loses
his job, father and beloved pet hamster, Mouse. On returning home to bury his
father, he finds a statement from his Grandfather, claiming that it was he who
raised the flag over the GPO during the 1916 Rising, which now hangs upsidedown in an army barracks in England. Too long used to the mockery of his life, he
sets out with his motley crew to find that fecking flag and maybe his passion for life
along the way.
Long Synopsis:
Harry Hambridge lives the drink sodden lonely life of a ‘past it’ paddy on the building
sites of London. Within 24 hours his hamster dies, he loses his job and then is summoned
back to Ireland for the funeral of his father who he hasn’t seen in thirty years.
At home he is reunited with his old friend, an ex jockey, Mouse. Together they discover
an extraordinary testimony from his grandfather claiming that he flew an Irish flag on
top of the GPO during the 1916 rising. The British then took the same flag as a
regimental trophy back to a barracks in England. The locals do not even consider this
claim, preferring instead to believe that the grandfather was under the bed in 1916
and only ever went into the GPO to post a letter. In fact, the Hambridge family was
always suspected of colluding with the British!
Harry is persuaded by Mouse to go on a mission to find the flag and therefore prove
his grandfather was a hero and clear the family name. Lied to by the British home
office, a plot forms in Harry’s head to break into the army barracks and steal back the
flag. A gang is formed, including ex work mates Hammer and Blacksod, a dogging
enthusiast, Cockney republican The Don and his woman Sally who Harry falls for.
This motley crew concoct a plan which involves using a bread van and a truck, and
dressing up as British soldiers with dodgey accents, they somehow get in and out of
the barracks with the flag before it all turns into a high speed chase across England.
Harry manages to get the flag back home in time for the 1916 commemorations,
giving a heartfelt speech on the real meaning of what the flag stands for.
3
Origins of The Flag
In 2014, producer Rob Walpole came across a statement his Grandfather had
made to the Military History Bureau corncerning the raising of the flag over the
GPO during the 1916 Rising. In the statement, Walpole’s Grandfather claimed to
have raised the flag of The Republic over the GPO. Several other Irish combatants
have also claimed to have done this and it occurred to Walpole that this could be
an interesting basis for a different take on the 2016 Centenary.
Working with writer Eugene O’Brien they developed the script fo
r The Flag and attached Pat Shortt and Moe Dunford to star early in the process.
Treasure had worked before with director Declan Recks on the The Running Mate;
and given Declan and Eugene’s long-standing working relationship, he was the
perfect fit.
The Flag is an action comedy film, which attempts to look at the 2016
commemorations from a different angle and it was inspired by the below
statement made by 1916 veteran Robert Henry Walpole.
4
Biographies
DECLAN RECKS, Director
Declan is a graduate of Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design (Dublin), and
UCLA Extension (Los Angeles), where he studied film and television. His early short
films won several awards and played at numerous festivals worldwide. He founded
Paradox Pictures with Producer Liam O’Neill in 1990. The company produced
numerous short films, documentaries and several feature films including;
SEPARATION ANXIETY (1996), PETES METEOR (1998) starring Mike Myers, Alfred
Molina and Brenda Fricker, and HOW HARRY BECAME A TREE (2001) with Colm
Meaney and Cillian Murphy. Declan left Paradox in 2003 to concentrate on his
Directing career.
His television work includes some of the top rated shows on Irish TV. ANY TIME NOW
(BBC/RTE 2002), PURE MULE (RTE 2005), THE CLINIC (RTE 2004-2006), THE RUNNING
MATE (TG4 2007). He has been nominated for an IFTA for Best Director on four
occasions and won in 2005 for his direction of the critically acclaimed ratings hit
PURE MULE.
His film, EDEN, was the closing film at the 2008 Jameson Dublin International Film
Festival and has since been shown at over 40 film festivals worldwide. It was
selected to screen in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival where lead actress
Eileen Walsh was awarded the Best Actress Award.
In 2009 Declan directed PURE MULE – THE LAST WEEKEND, a two part special
revisiting the characters from the original series five years on. The show was
nominated for seven IFTA awards, including Best Director. Recent credits include
two series of the IFTA nominated drama SCÚP written by Colin Bateman for
BBC(NI)/TG4 and the final series of 6 DEGREES for BBC(NI).
In 2015 he completed THE TRUTH COMMISSIONER based on David Parks' book of
the same name. The film stars Roger Allam and Sean McGinley and is a coproduction between Big Fish Films (UK) and Samson Films (IRL) it was released in
early 2016.
He recently completed THE FLAG starring Pat Shortt and Moe Dunford, written by
Eugene O'Brien for Treasure Entertainment, it will be released in Irish Cinemas on
Oct 14th.
He is a member of the European Film Academy, Directors UK and is on the board
of the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland (SDGI).
EUGENE O’BRIEN, Writer
Eugene wrote the play Eden, first performed in the Abbey theatre in 2001. It won
the Stewart Parker award, the Rooney prize for literature and the Irish times/ESB
award for best new play. It transferred to the west end and has been translated
into Dutch, German, Romanian, Italian and Catalan. His second play ‘Savoy’
debuted in the peacock theatre in 2004. His latest play ‘Just here’ ran in bewleys
cafe theatre last year.
He has written three plays for RTE radio drama, The Nest, Sloth, and Numb(
nominated for the writers guild Zebbie award). He also adapted Eden and Roddy
Doyle’s Barrytown trilogy for BBC radio.
He wrote the screenplay for Eden, directed by Declan Recks, which played at
many festivals including New York’s Tribeca festival and secured an American
release with Liberation films. His award winning television series Pure Mule ( Winner
of five IFTA’s) aired in 2005 and the two part follow up, Pure Mule- The last
weekend was screened in 2009.
He also worked on the script for comedy feature The food guide to love and TV3’s
Red rock. Just recently he wrote the comedy ‘The Flag’ for Treasure films which will
be released in October.
REBECCA O’FLANAGAN and ROBERT WALPOLE, Producers
Rebecca and Rob jointly run Treasure Entertainment. Their most recent film
productions include John Butler’s Handsome Devil which premiered at the Toronto
International Film festival this year; Paddy Beathnach’s Viva; written by Mark
O’Halloran the film premiered in Telluride in 2015 and has sold throughout the
world and won numerous awards include the Dorian Award for Best Foreign
Language Film. John Butler’s debut feature, hit comedy The Stag, also premiered
at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014 and had huge box-office success
in Ireland and the UK, winning John the DGS Director’s Finders Series. Other credits
include Vivienne DeCourcy’s directorial debut Dare to be Wild, Lisa Barros D’Sa
and Glenn Leyburnn’s BAFTA nominated Good Vibrations, My Brothers, IFTA
award-winning TV series Your Bad Self and The Eclipse which screened in
competition at Tribeca Film Festival winning Best Actor for Ciaran Hinds. The Film
also won Best European Film at The Sitges Film Festival (2009) and Best Film at the
Irish Film and Television Academy Awards (2010). Other credits include the award
wining television series The Running Mate and the films Shrooms, The Mighty Celt,
Man About Dog, Saltwater and I Went Down, which was Treasure first feature film
starring Brendan Gleeson and directed by Paddy Breathnach.
Treasure
Entertainment are currently producing comedy heist The Flag featuring Pat Shortt
due for release on October 14th and Kev Cahill’s short film A Nation Holds its Breath
with The Weinstein Company.
6
STEPHEN McKEON, Composer
Stephen McKeon has been composing music for film and television for over 23
years. He has scored over 50 films and numerous international television drama
series and documentaries including BLACK MIRROR, POIROT, PRIMEVAL and the
ITV comedy series LOVE & MARRIAGE.
He has been nominated for several international awards and in 2006 and then in
2015 he was the recipient of the Best Score IFTA (Irish Film & Television Academy)
for his scores for OSCAR winning director John Boorman's "THE TIGER'S" TAIL &
"QUEEN & COUNTRY", the follow up to "HOPE & GLORY". He has composed the
score for the recent LIONSGATE release "NORM of the NORTH" and was nominated
in 2013 for an EDDA Award for his score to THOR - Legends of Valhalla. He has
recently completed scoring the live action feature "PILGRIMAGE" starring Jon
Bernthal (The Walking Dead) and Tom Holland (Spiderman) and season two of
"JACK TAYLOR" a dark & gritty detective series starring IAIN GLEN (GAME of
THRONES).
He works from his MOONFLOWER studios in county Wicklow, Ireland.
CATHAL WATTERS, Director of Photography
Cathal's love of photography began at age 10 when he started to process his
own film. After receiving a BA in Drama and Theatre from Trinity College Dublin he
went on to shoot the news and current affairs projects. He later began shooting
and directing award-winning documentaries, including Muide Éire, Dhá Chuirt,
One Million Dubliners and won an IFTA for the series Jockey Eile. He has shot many
award winning shorts including Rolla Saor and Shimmy Marcus' Rhinos and has also
directed and shot a number of award-winning music videos.
Cathal currently works mainly on films, music videos and commercials. In 2014 he
worked on Paddy Breathnach’s critically acclaimed Viva for which he won an IFTA
for Best Cinematography. Other film credits include The Flag, A Dark Song and
Dare to be Wild.
DERMOT DISKIN, Editor
Dermot Diskin is an award winning film editor, cutting features & TV dramas for
over 20 years. Recent credits include "The Secret Scripture" for Jim Sheridan, Stella
Days for Thaddeus O'Sullivan & "Man about Dog" for Paddy Breathnach. He also
worked on all five series of the hugely successful TV drama series, "Love/Hate". The
feature documentary "It's Not Yet Dark" which he cut won Best Documentary in
The Galway Film Fleadh 2016.
7
Pat Shortt
Pat Pat Shortt started in comedy when he left Art College. With Jon Kenny he
created 'D'Unbelievables', Ireland's most popular comedy duo. They performed
their unique brand of comedy in theatres all over Ireland, Great Britain and The US
as well as various countries across Europe. They produced four critically acclaimed
and sell-out shows as well as writing and producing chart-topping Videos.
As a solo artist Pat's first live show was a sell-out. It played more than 250 dates
around Ireland, selling out at the Cats Laughs Festival in Kilkenny before the festival
even opened, the first act ever to achieve this landmark. His second show "You
Won't Get Away With That Here" has achieved equal success selling out shows all
over the country. Pat also toured extensively with his next Live Show 'Pat Shortt in
The Hall'. The reformation of the D'Unbelievables with Jon Kenny has been
extremely popular, and they toured to packed houses with huge success in the
Spring of 2011. Pat also starred at the National Concert Hall as Herod in Jesus
Christ Superstar in 2010. In the Spring of 2012, Pat began touring with his new solo
Live Show 'I Am The Band', about the life of musician Dixie Walsh.
Film credits include Angela Mooney Dies Again (with Mia Farrow), This Is My Father
(with Brendan Gleeson, Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rae and James Caan) ,The Closer
It Gets (with Ian Harte, Niamh Cusack and Sean McGinley), Man About Dog
written by Belfast-born Pearse Eliot, and Wheeler McCoy in the movie "Strength &
Honour".
Pat played the lead role of "Josie" in the film Garage. Garage was a huge
success, and is the second feature film from director Lenny Abrahamson and
writer Mark O'Halloran. It picked up the CICAE Art and Essai Cinema Prize at the
Cannes Film Festival and Pat also won awards from IFTA (Best Actor), Evening
Standard (Best Actor) and the Monte Carlo Festival (Best Actor). 'Garage'
screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight sidebar at the prestigious French
festival. Pat has also recently completed two films, 'Soulboy', directed by Shimmy
Marcus and 'The Guard', with Brendan Gleeson and directed by John Martin
McDonagh. Pat's also starred in Lance Daly's 'Life's a Breeze', and worked on
McDonagh’s follow up feature 'Calvary'.
Television credits include Tom the Character in Fr. Ted, (Channel 4) and Bobby in
The Fitz (BBC). Killinaskully is a hit series created by Pat for RTE , and ran for five
series, the last of which was screened on RTE during 2008. Killinaskully was
nominated three times by IFTA for best Entertainment programme and was also
nominated in the Best Entertainment category at the Monte Carlo Television
Festival. In 2009 he completed two pilot programmes for RTE ('Mattie' and 'Inside
the Crystal Ball'), filmed in the latter part of the year and screened over the
Christmas period. A two-episode of 'Mattie' was also screened by RTE over the
festive period in 2010 and two follow up episodes entitled 'Sgt Mattie' were
screened over Christmas 2011. Pat also starred in Chris O’Dowd’s ‘Moone Boy’ for
Sky 1 HD. Pat can currently be seen on RTÉ’s new draa serial Smalltown, written
and directed by Gerard Barrett.
8
Moe Dunford
Moe Dunford is an Irish actor who is best known for his roles as Aethelwulf in
Vikingsand as Patrick Fitzgerald in Patrick’s Day. He has appeared in projects like
TV series The Tudors starring actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Vikings, and Game of
Thrones.
In 2015, he received an IFTA in the category of Best Actor in a Lead Role in Film for
Patrick's Day, and an EFP 2015 Shooting Stars Award representing Ireland at the
Berlin Film Festival.
Upcoming feature films include The Flag with Pat Shortt and John Butler’s
Handsome Devil with Andrew Scott.
Simone Kirby
Simone's film credits include award winning feature film 'Notes On Blindness', 'Alice
Through The Looking Glass' alongside Johnny Depp, 'The Truth Commissioner' for
BBC, and Ken Loach's feature film 'Jimmy's Hall', playing the female lead.
Recent film includes 'The Flag' with Pat Shortt and Moe Dunford, due for release on
Oct 14th, and 'Steven', a film about Smiths' singer Steven Morrissey, due for release
next year.
For television Simone has played Irene in 'Peaky Blinders', Sister Grace in Houdini &
Doyle (ITV), Tracey Moynihan in Love/Hate, Geraldine in hugely popular 'Pure
Mule', and as a comedy writer and performer in 'Meet Your Neighbours' with PJ
Gallagher.
Recent work includes 'Dark Heart' a new ITV series, due for release later this year.
For theatre Simone has performed extensively with The Old Vic, Shakespeare's
Globe, The Irish Rep in New York, The Abbey Theatre and The Gate Theatre in
Ireland, and with Druid, Corn Exchange, and Rough Magic, amongst many others.
Ruth Bradley
Ruth is an award-winning actress for film and television. Her credits include THE
FALL Series 3 (Artists Studio/BBC); REBELLION Winner of IFTA 2016 for Best Actress In
A Lead Role (Touchpaper Television/RTÉ); HUMANS Series 1 & 2 (AMC/Channel 4);
HORIZON [Pilot] (USA Network); BIG THUNDER [Pilot] (ABC); THREESOME Series 2 (Big
Talk Productions); BEAUTY AND THE BEAST [Pilot] (ABC); TITANIC (Deep Indigo/ITV);
PRIMEVAL (Impossible Pictures); LOVE/HATE (RTE); PLUS ONE (Channel 4); THE
INNOCENCE PROJECT (BBC/Tightrope Productions); LEGEND (RTE); STARDUST Best
Actress Award, IFTA 2007 (Merlin Films for RTE); GOLDEN HOUR (TalkBack Thames);
THE CLINIC (RTE); SINNERS (BBC); TUBBERWARE (RTE); FRANNIE (RTE).
For film she has starred in THE FLAG (Treasure Entertainment); DAPHNE (The
Bureau); PURSUIT Nominated for the Best Actress In A Lead Role (Film) Award IFTA,
2016; THE SEA (Independent/Samson Films); GRABBERS Winner of the Best Lead
Actress In A Film Award, IFTA 2013 (Grab Film Productions); I AM YOU Nominated
for the Leonardo’s horse award for best acting performance (female), Milan
International film festival (MIFF), 2011 (Liberty Films); ALARM (Venus Productions);
FLYBOYS (Ingenious Film Partners).
Theatre credits include PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD (Abbey Theatre, Dublin);
SIVE (Druid Theatre); BUDDLEIA (Donmar Warehouse).
9
Peter Campion
A graduate of Guildhall Music and Drama, Peter’s film credits include John
Crowley’s BROOKLYN starring Saoirse Ronan and Domhnall Gleeson and John
Carney’s SING STREET. His most recent credits include BBC’s television series
REDWATER and Declan Reck’s comedy feature THE FLAG starring Pat Shortt. For
television Peter has starred in RTÉ’s drama series RAW and critically acclaimed
drama series LOVE/HATE. For the BBC he stared in drama series 6 DEGREES and
then Channel 4’s comedy series LONDON IRISH. More recent television credits
include TRIAL OF THE CENTURY directed by Maurice Sweeney for TV3. For theatre
Peter has performed extensively in the UK and Ireland, including The Gaiety, The
Peacock, Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum, the Everyman, the Lyric Belfast, Galway
Town Hall and the National Theatre London.
Brian Gleeson
Brian’s most recent credits are Steven Soderbergh's forthcoming feature LOGAN
LUCKY and the as-yet untitled DARREN ARONOFSKY PROJECT with Jennifer
Lawrence. He will next film season two of REBELLION directed by Catherine
Morshead for RTE/SundanceTV. Other recent film and television work includes the
role of Blacksod in Declan Recks's feature film THE FLAG, the lead role of Jimmy
Mahon in season one of the RTÉ series REBELLION directed by Aku
Louhimies, ASSASSIN'S CREED directed by Justin Kurzel, TIGER RAID directed by
Simon Dixon, the BBC series STONEMOUTH, Fiona Tan’s HISTORY’S FUTURE, Wiebke
Von Carolsfeld's STAY starring Aidan Quinn and Taylor Schilling, Patrick Ryan's
DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN and Ronan and Rob Burke’s STANDBY, costarring Jessica Paré. Further credits include the role of Gus opposite Kristen
Stewart in SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN and the role of Sinclair in the BBC
adaptation of Benjamin Black’s QUIRKE series, with Gabriel Byrne.
Recent theatre credits include the role of Brendan in THE WEIR directed by
Amanda Gaughan at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh and the role of Seán in THE
WALWORTH FARCE directed by Seán Foley at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin, in
which he co-starred alongside his brother Domhnall and father Brendan Gleeson.
Prior to that he appeared in the Donmar Warehouse’s acclaimed production of
Conor McPherson’s THE NIGHT ALIVE, which also ran at the Atlantic Theatre in New
York and was named Best Play of 2013/2014 by the New York Drama Critics Circle.
10