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Home , Brendan Gleeson, Brian Gleeson (actor), Domhnall Gleeson, Killinaskully, Man About Dog, Pure Mule

Bord Scannán na hÉireann / Irish Film Board,

RTÉ and the Broadcasting Authority of with Windmill Lane Pictures

present

A Treasure Entertainment Production

The Flag

85 mins. • 2016 • Ireland

PRODUCTION CO. PUBLICITY CONTACT Treasure Entertainment Nell Roddy The Copper House Element Pictures Distribution St Kevin’s Cottages 21 Mespil Road 8 Dublin 4 Phone: +353 1 4758820 Phone: +353 1 6185032 Email: [email protected] / [email protected] 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

Hammer Peter Campion

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Tagline We are the soldiers of destiny… Seriously.

Short Synopsis / Logline Harry Hambridge is a down-on-his-luck paddy living in . 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 upside- down 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 . 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), (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 co- production 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 /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 ’s Barrytown trilogy for BBC radio.

He wrote the 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 (2010). Other credits include the award wining television series The Running Mate and the films Shrooms, The Mighty Celt, Man About Dog, Saltwater and , which was Treasure first feature film starring and directed by . 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.

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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 , 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 '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 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 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, () and Bobby in The Fitz (BBC). 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.

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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 , 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 .

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); 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); 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).

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Peter Campion A graduate of Guildhall Music and Drama, Peter’s film credits include John Crowley’s starring and 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 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, co- starring 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 .

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 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.

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