CELTIC UTOPIA (UTÓIPE CHEILTEACH)
Saturday, February 28 • 9:30 PM • T1
The screening will be followed by a special guest Q&A with director Dennis Harvey moderated by Maedhbh Mc Cullagh, Capital Irish Film Festival Director.
Documentary Feature | East Coast Premiere | Feature Directorial Debut | Award Winner
Screening generously sponsored by John & Lori Collins
Ireland's traditional folk music scene is being redefined and reformed by a new wave of young artists coming from punk, hip-hop, and beyond to rediscover an ancient tradition, infuse it with new vision and take it in unexpected directions. telling stories and singing songs to try to understand their past and heal their colonial wounds. This directorial debut tells the story of contemporary Ireland’s vibrant music scene, while also tracing a post-colonial society wrestling with its heritage—a society where folk music carries both the oppression of the past and the dream of a bright future. The Irish folk renaissance sees artists coming from punk, hip-hop, and beyond to rediscover an ancient tradition and take it in unexpected directions—telling stories and singing songs to try to understand their past and heal their colonial wounds. Archive footage ties the present moment to Ireland’s troubled past, creating a rich portrait of an island coming to terms with its first 100 years of partial independence.
DIR Dennis Harvey, Lars Lovén; PROD Elin Lilleman Eriksson; CAST The Mary Wallopers, Negro Impacto, The Deadlians, Jinx Lennon, Poor Creature, Branwen, Lankum, Naoise Mac Cathmhaoil, Rising Damp, Young Spencer, Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, Róis, Post Punk Podge, Susan Hughes, Tadhg Mulligan, Alfie Mulligan, Múlú, Niamh Moriarty, Cathail O’Mhaoil, Summer Newman, Eimear Níc Ionnrachtaigh, and Eoghan Ó Garmaile; DOP Tuva Björk & Jamie Goldrick; SCORE Thomas Jansson. Ireland, 2025, color, 90 min. In English and Irish with English subtitles. NOT RATED
AWARDS: 2025 Galway Film Fleadh: Best International Documentary, Free Speech Film Festival in Philadelphia: Free Speech Award
“If last year’s KNEECAP did a lot to get across the vibrancy and vitality of Irish-language music as both art and a necessary form of protest, Dennis Harvey and Lars Lovén’s documentary seems poised to expand the conversation further with a wider-reaching focus than that fictionalized biopic.” – IndieWire
"★★★★ Celtic Utopia is a remarkable documentary" - Loud and Clear
“The viewer comes to understand the colonial and theocratic heritage in Ireland is a blessing and a curse: it has caused so much pain, but gives artists something to rebel against, to be in opposition to, and therefore guides much of Irish musical and national identity.” – Documentary Weekly
"...a genuine passion mixed with a youthfulness..." – Film Carnage
"What emerges is something observational and respectful (following the Irish tradition), a reminder of what musical documentaries can be when they resist genre conventions and let the texture of daily felt life surface." – The People's Movies
Funded by Creative Europe MEDIA's European Co-development funding awarded to MDEMC and Plainsong Films, The Swedish Film Institute, Creative Europe, SVT, An Chomhairle Ealaíon, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee and The Helge Ax:son Foundation.
🎟 For further information regarding bookings:
Please call 301-495-6720 between M-F, 9 AM - 5:30 PM or email silverinfo@AFI.com
Dennis Harvey is a filmmaker from Ireland. He is best known for his short documentary The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp (2024), which won the Swedish Academy Award (Guldbagge) for Best Short Film, and was selected by the French Academy of Cinema (Les César) as one of the world’s best short films of 2024. Dennis mainly writes and directs documentaries, but has also produced and edited his own films. His first feature, I Must Away (2023), was a kaleidoscopic essay about movement filmed over seven years in six countries. His latest short, The New Policy Regarding Homeless Asylum Seekers (2025), is an uncompromising interrogation of Ireland’s inhuman asylum system and a dedication to those resisting it. With a cinema vérité approach and a particular sensitivity to the human, Dennis’ work interrogates the political through the personal.
Lars Lovén is a documentary filmmaker, journalist and documentary producer for radio. Directed the feature documentary Fonko (2016) which captures the contemporary music scene in a number of cities across the African continent, tracing its roots to the fight against colonialism and contextualising it against rapid social change. The film had cinema distribution and festival screenings in more than 40 countries worldwide. Útóipe Cheilteach (international title: Celtic Utopia) is his second feature and premiered at Locarno film festival. Like most of his work it takes place at the intersection of music, politics and history. The same is true for the music documentaries he made for Swedish National Radio P2, including Astor Piazzolla, tangons motvalsgeni (2021), Det sista folkmusikhaket (2019) and Rebetiko (2017).
Maedhbh Mc Cullagh is a multidisciplinary cultural producer, arts programmer, and creative consultant from Ireland. For more than two decades she has been producing and managing artistic programs, presentations, productions, and special events for international festivals and cultural organizations, in Europe and the US, including appointments as the Associate Director of Irish Screen America, Managing Director of the contemporary interdisciplinary Abrons Arts Center, independent freelance producer at The Trailblazery, The Civilians Theater Company, Performance Space NY, The Foundry Theatre, the Alliance of Resident Theatres NY, Program Manager of the international Dublin Fringe Festival and Associate Producer of the award-winning Aurora Nova international program of physical theatre, dance and cross-disciplinary performance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
DINNER AND A MOVIE DEAL
Our festival partner, McGinty's Public House, has generously offered an ongoing discount from February 27 through March 2 for all CIFF ticket holders! When you dine at the restaurant, show your CIFF ticket or pass for a 10% off discount on your bill. Located just around the corner from AFI Silver Theatre, McGinty's (911 Ellsworth Dr, Silver Spring, MD 20910) is the perfect place to grab a bite to eat between screenings.
The Capital Irish Film Festival is supported by the Government of Ireland Emigrant Support Programme, Culture Ireland, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, Embassy of Ireland, Northern Ireland Bureau, Northern Ireland Screen, and the Irish Film Institute’s IFI International Programme supported by Culture Ireland. Solas Nua is supported by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities.
