A Kildare family has featured on the big screen in Japan in a fly-on-the-wall documentary on their lives during last summer's Special Olympics.
Host Town, a Japanese-made film, focuses on the Purcells from Newbridge, and how their town prepared to host the Japanese team that took part in the games.
In particular, the film looks at the lives of Amy Purcell (19), who has Down's Syndrome, and her sister Lindsey (17), who has cerebral palsy, their parents, their extended family and friends.
The film premièred at Tokyo's prestigious Segetsu Hall this week, and is set for a limited cinema release in Japan next month.
It shows how the people of Newbridge made the team from the Far East feel welcome, and how the family lives with the two girls' disabilities. It was shot over a two-month period before, during and after the games.
Host Town was shot by well-known Japanese filmmaker Kenichi Oguri, and produced by Ms Kayoko Hosokawa, the wife of a former prime minister. It is narrated by writer Malachy McCourt.
It is hoped the film will help raise awareness about the games as Japan prepares to host the Special Olympics at Nagano in 2005.
Amy's and Lindsey's parents, Mr Paddy Purcell and Ms Josie Purcell, and younger sister Lydia were in Tokyo for the début screening of the documentary.
The Purcells were also reunited with Japanese Special Olympian Hamami Umezawa, a swimmer, whose participation in the games and her stay in Newbridge is also featured in the film. She told the audience in Tokyo that taking part in the Irish games was the greatest moment in her life.
After the show, an emotional Mr Purcell, NCO in the Irish Defence Forces, said it was hard to find words to describe the events in the film, and seeing his family on the big screen.
He described having a film made about his family as an incredible experience, although they were not used to having cameras and film crews in the house. They had found it easy to get on with the crew.
"Eventually they became our friends."
The family hopes Host Town will be shown in Ireland, either on domestic television or possibly at an Irish film festival.
The première was attended by members of the Japanese imperial household, those involved in the organisation of the Special Olympics, and the Irish Ambassador to Japan, Mr Pádraig Murphy.