Trad

Ireland, 2025, Subtitles

Shóna (a star making performance from newcomer Megan Nic Fhionnghaile) is a gifted teenage fiddle player in Donegal, getting to an age where she’s becoming disillusioned with the confines of both the music she plays and those put upon her by her oppressive mother. Inspired by an anarchic troupe of travelling musicians and with her young brother Mickey in tow, Shóna begins a journey of self-discovery through the towns and counties of Ireland begins. Celebrated filmmaker Lance Daly (Kisses, Black 47) is too smart a director to be a slave to genre conventions, as he deftly prods road movie and coming-of-age cliché with humour and a keen wit. A film that is as joyous as the wonderful music it celebrates, Trad won the Audience Award at the Galway Film Fleadh this year, and it’s a pleasure to present it as the opening film of the Irish Film Festival London 2025. - Michael Hayden

DIRECTOR
Lance Daly

WITH
Megan Nic Fhionnghaile
Aidan Gillen
Sarah Greene
Peter Coonan
Ann Skelly
Henrique Zaga
Cathal Coade Palmer
Dallán Woods
Francis O’Mahon
Sonny Daly
Labhrás Sonaí
Choilm Learraí