Published: December 13, 2024 — As part of BBC Northern Ireland’s Christmas offering, audiences will be able to feast their eyes on two acclaimed films made in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, Ballywalter and That They May Face The Rising Sun.

Ballywalter

Ballywalter, starring Patrick Kielty, comes to BBC iPlayer and BBC One Northern Ireland on Monday 16 December from 10.40pm. This life-affirming story is about the unexpected connections that can change the course of our lives.

Filmed in Northern Ireland, it follows Eileen (Seána Kerslake) a caustic, unrepentant University drop-out whose dreams of a successful life in London have fallen by the wayside. Back at home with her mum, she makes ends meet by working as an unlicensed driver in her ex-boyfriend’s minicab.

Shane (Patrick Kielty) has exiled himself in Ballywalter following the break-up of his marriage, but now he’s trying to get his life back on track by enrolling in a stand-up comedy course. When Shane calls a taxi to get him to his classes, Eileen answers and a surprising connection is made. As the two spend time together shuttling back and forth, a beautiful friendship develops, leading both to a moment of realisation.

Ballywalter is produced by James Bierman (Genius) and Nik Bower (Selma) and co-produced by Alan Maher and John Wallace. It is an Empire Street Productions and Riverstone Pictures production, in co-production with Cowtown Pictures, and is financed by the BFI Film Fund, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, Northern Ireland Screen and Salmira Productions.

That They May Face The Rising Sun

That They May Face The Rising Sun, based on the novel by John McGahern and starring Barry Ward , Anna Bederke and Lalor Roddy, will be available on BBC iPlayer and BBC One Northern Ireland from Monday 30 December at 10.30pm.

That They May Face the Rising Sun, which picked up the award for best Film at this year’s Irish Film and Television Academy Awards, was made with funding from BBC Northern Ireland. It is set in the early 1980s, just before the communications revolution vastly changed the dynamics of rural communities. Having returned from London five years earlier to set up home near where he grew up, Joe Ruttledge (Barry Ward) and his wife Kate (Anna Bederke), are now deeply embedded in their small, lakeside rural community. In this community, neighbours visit each other’s houses to share news and talk by the fire and help each other with all the big jobs of the farming calendar – lambing, shearing, saving hay, cutting turf.

Complex, but mutually understood codes of manners determined people’s obligations to each other. Told through the keen and sensitive eyes of the Ruttledges, the drama of a year and a half in the lives of the characters that circle the lake unfolds in action, rituals of work, family dynamics and social observances.

That They May Face The Rising Sun is a South Wind Blows, Harvest Films and Cyprus Avenue Films production. The film is supported by Fís Eíreann/Screen Ireland, the BAI, RTÉ, Northern Ireland Screen, BBC Northern Ireland and Yellow Moon Postproduction.