The residents of this small 1918 outport community await the return of young Paddy Riley from the hospital in town where he is recovering from his war injuries. But Paddy’s return takes place in a factory-made coffin, with a government warning: Viewing Not Advised.” Among those keeping the wake are Paddy’s mother Mrs. Josie, who has already lost her husband to the sea and her elder son to the war; Bridget Lannon, the fiery girl who was expecting to be married to Paddy; her father Austin, a boozy rebel against king and church; Phonse O’Brien, the village cart man who has been courting Mrs. Josie unsuccessfully for a decade; Gussie Tobin, who longs for the soldier’s glory he never got to have; Mary Frances, the stern keeper of protocol; and Paddy’s best friend Neddie Nolan, a whimsical spirit who names goats after saints, whose crippled legs kept him out of the war, and whose gift of sight connects him to the invisible world even while his awkardness makes him the village fool. It is Neddie who makes the alarming discovery: the government has “got tings all assed up”: the wrong dead soldier (“Buddy”) has been sent in the coffin. A series of comic misadventures ensue as Neddie first tries to protect the others from this distressing discovery (while arguing with Paddy’s ghost about the matter); and, as the others find out the secret and sort out the consequent misunderstandings, they search for a solution against obstacles of geographic isolation, social convention, and religious stricture, so that Paddy and Buddy may both be laid to rest. In the process they will have to reckon with the losses they have already borne. And it is Neddie who will be their leader in this quest.

Director: Amnon Buchbinder
Screenplay by Amnon Buchbinder and M.T. Dohaney based on a story by M.T. Dohaney
Producer: Camelia Frieberg
Co-Producers: Geneviève Appleton, Kelly Bray
Production Designer: Emanuel Jannasch
A co-production between Palpable Productions and White Wave Productions

Development Financed by Telefilm Canada, Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation, The Harold Greenberg Fund, and Movie Central.

productions | writing | design | awards | personnel | contact us | home