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WHERE THE CRICKETS SING

By Cathal BLACK

Drama - Development 2022

Captain Marsha Rooney, a modern fighting woman with the Irish/UN contingent force in Lebanon, hears her daughter has been murdered in Ireland. Grief distorts Marsha’s desire for revenge. A newfound love with a Polish immigrant could allow Marsha to put the past behind her… But will she?

- Year of production
- 2022
- Genres
- Drama
- Countries
- IRELAND, POLAND
- Languages
- ENGLISH, POLISH
- Budget
- 1 - 3 M$
- Duration
- 90 mn
- Director(s)
- Cathal BLACK
- Writer(s)
- Cathal BLACK, Philip DAVISON
- Producer(s)
- Juliane WOTHE (New Stage Films)
- Synopsis
- In a swirling desert storm Captain MARSHA ROONEY, Irish soldier serving with UN forces in the Lebanon, tries to save the life of PRIVATE JOHN-JOE FARRELL after their vehicle plunges off a collapsed bridge. It is a world entirely apart from all she holds precious in Ireland - her fractured family. Marsha returns home to her native Sligo for his daughter’s wedding. Both she and her estranged husband, FERGUS, privately have concerns about their new son-in-law,DONAL, a likeable young man with unsavory business connections.
  
  A short time later Marsha must return again from her overseas duties, but this time under tragic circumstances – her daughter, AISLING, has been killed in a botched attack on her new husband.
  
  Temporarily relieved of military duty, Marsha tramps the the strage and beuatiful countryside. But she is full of grief. “Grief can feel a lot like fear” a sympathetic psychiatrist tells her. She replies that she is not afraid. Yet she’s inconsolable, moving through the town like a ghost and tramping the surrounding high landscape.
  
  She is further tested by the silence of her son-in-law lying wounded in a protected hospital ward. But there is an unlikely source of comfort, perhaps salvation. She meets and falls in love with HENIEK, a Polish nurse working in the regional hospital.
  
  Heniek becomes ill. His ex-wife, OLESIA, old school communist, travels to be with him. For these three self-reliant but isolated people, love startles and brings great uncertainty.
  
  As Heniek recovers, this new force for good in Marsha’s life, gives rise to a moral dilemma – should he seek revenge for the killing of her daughter? There is no duty without loyalty.
  She goes to her father, THADDEUS, with whom she has a strong bond. He's a retired military man. Marsha hopes he has the vision and the metal to judge the moral course versus richeous vengence, but he is resolute in it being Marsha's decision alone.
  
  Marsha seeks and gets confirmation of the identity of her daughter's killer from Donal with a combination of forceful manipulation and persuasion. Marsha takes her revenge. This principled and honourable woman is prepared to be damned, but not, she hopes, without the love Heniek
  offers.
  
  She must be doubly careful because the connections in this town are close and intricate. Her former husband, FERGAL, is now married to one of the investigating garda. The police know who is responsible for Aisling's murder, but they lack proof, and now, the situation had repeated itself. They are sure of Marsha's guilt, but as yet have
  insufficient proof. Will they strive officiously to obtain that proof? Perhaps not.
  
  Gangsters like Clancy are liable to target loved ones. For his protection, Marsha sends the recovering Heniek back to Poland and potentially into the arms of his former lover, OLESIA. For Marsha life has changed utterly. She decides she must follow Heniek to Poland to get him back, come what may.