The first county council in the State to own a mobile cinema put it to use yesterday when the film censor visited Co Leitrim as part of a new policy of going to the regions.
It was only the second time that Mr Sheamus Smith has left the capital to make a classification, having been to his home town of Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, in October.
The film being viewed was The Mapmaker, written and directed by Leitrim-based Johnny Gogan, who has had work shown at Cannes and other major film festivals. His last feature film was The Last Bus Home.
The Mapmaker will go on general release in April after Mr Smith announced he had given it a 15PG classification.
Based around the story of a man who goes to a Border area of Co Fermanagh to make a hillwalking map, it is described as a psychological thriller. The arrival of the Dubliner arouses suspicion, even in post-Troubles times.
"The landscape holds secrets, particularly in relation to the disappearance of a local farmer 10 years earlier, and the mapmaker has to find out what happened to this man before he can finish the map, both for himself and the man's son who he has befriended," explained Mr Gogan.
The €1.4 million film has a cast including Brian F. O'Byrne, Susan Lynch, Brendan Coyle, Ian McElhinney, and writer and actor Dermot Healy.
It was mainly shot in Co Leitrim. A factory in Manorhamilton was used as studio and all the editing was done in Leitrim.
Mr Gogan said the arrival of the film censor yesterday was another step in showing that everything does not have to happen in Dublin. "It shows we can make where we are living the centre of our industry," he added.
Leitrim county manager Mr Sean Kielty, who invited Mr Smith to Leitrim, has a long-standing interest in film, having worked as the projectionist in Drumshanbo cinema before it closed in 1967. Since the early 1970s there has only been one cinema in Co Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon.
The brightly-painted green and yellow mobile cinema, called Aisling Gheal Liatroma, has been touring the county since June.
Mr Kiely said he hoped The Mapmaker would be "Leitrim's Ryan's Daughter". A Leitrim Integrated Film Commission has recently been set up to try to entice more film makers to the county.
Mr Smith said he was delighted to be able to come to Leitrim. It was exciting that the mobile cinema allowed communities to see films on a wide screen with perfect sound and projection, and in very comfortable surroundings.