It is perhaps fitting that this dream-like Irish film existed only in the collective imagination for many decades, worming its way into later folk horrors, including Paul Duane’s All You Need Is Death. Robert Wynne-Simmons’s beguiling pre-Famine drama won big awards at film festivals in Brussels and Geneva. Still, after a short theatrical run, a limited 1983 VHS release, and an airing on Channel 4 in 1984, it disappeared, becoming almost analogous to the folk songs, archetypes and legends detailed within. Had the film been more readily available, one feels, it would surely have found its way on to the pages of Mark Fisher’s The Weird and the Eerie.
WB Yeats’s The Fiddler of Dooney and William Blake’s The Book of Thel, tales of changelings, and disappearing customs inform the action: mummers serenade a forced marriage between Breda (Brenda Scallon) and conniving yokel Eamon (Mairtín Ó'Flathearta) until a distant fiddle gives the wedding party pause. The faraway musician is the shaman and dark fairy, Scarf Michael (Mick Lally): “a wild and ungodly man”. He finds a kindred spirit and lover in Breda’s bullied younger sister Maura (Mary Ryan), a near-wordless girl.
Soon, every misfortune that befalls the community is attributed to Maura. Against the protestations of Maura’s father (Don Foley) and the reasonable local priest (Paul Bennett), a mob moves to kill the girl, who stands accused of being a witch.
Once billed as the first Irish feature film in 50 years, The Outcasts has been beautifully refurbished in 2K by the IFI’s Digital Restoration Project. Sleight of hand by cinematographer Seamus Corcoran and editor Arthur Keating’s jump cuts craft a fairy magic that recalls the holy miracles of Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St Matthew. Iconic actors, including Cyril Cusack, perform appropriately mythological roles. Treasure, unearthed.
