Alex Heeney reviews Alexander Murphy’s observational documentary Tin Castle about a family of Irish Travellers. The film had its world premiere in the Cannes Critics’ Week sidebar.
Discover more Cannes coverage here
Discover one film you didn’t know you needed:
Not in the zeitgeist. Not pushed by streamers.
But still easy to find — and worth sitting with.
And a guide to help you do just that.
Alexander Murphy’s observational documentary Tin Castle is full of romantic images: horse rides at dusk, ice cream cones eaten by the sea, and the blue sky at the side of the road where the O’Reillys live. But we meet the central family in a much more quotidian moment: the camera sits outside the door to their mobile home — their tin castle — as one by one, the family exits as the children prepare to go to school and the parents prepare for their day. It’s also when we realize that 12 people live in this small mobile home, where, we soon learn, the generator often breaks, and the chimney is always expelling black smoke. Their tin castle may be on its last legs, and even as the state offers them a beautiful home to live in, they find themselves unable or unwilling to fully assimilate.
That first image is key: the trailer, cut off from the world by the highway they’re illegally parked alongside — the highway that cuts them off from the rest of the world. Still, the children are wearing school uniforms, integrating into Irish society. But while there are many moments of the siblings playing together — dressing up as brides, counting cars along the road — we don’t ever see them with friends from school they’ve brought home. It suggests that being a Traveller is inherently lonely; we don’t even see the O’Reillys with other Travellers.
A mix of quiet observation and romanticism in Alexander Murphy’s Tin Castle
Throughout the film, Murphy mixes quietly observed moments of family stress with the more romantic imagery that being an Irish Traveller, at the best of times, allows. Murphy often shoots Pa’ sitting quietly, despondent, in the trailer; he suffers from depression and anxiety, but still shows boundless tenderness for his children. Lisa, their mother, is the practical one: making the budget, buying the groceries, and dealing with the legal world when Pa’ may have to go to jail. In one tender scene, we’re in the kitchen with one of the couple’s younger daughters, while Lisa and her eldest son can be seen at the back of the frame, discussing what happens when he gets married. While Pa’ is fiercely protective of their Traveller identity, his son sees the world is changing — and isn’t sure he wants to keep living like his family has been, no matter how much he loves them.
An intimate visual language
Murphy, who also served as his own cinematographer, finds a real intimacy in his visual language. There are several lovely scenes of a pair of O’Reillys, shot from behind, tenderly opening up — whether it’s the eldest son telling Pa’ how grateful he is to have learned the Traveller traditions or two brothers on folding chairs talking about their futures as they watch the cars go by. And of course, all those dramatic blue skies at dusk and heart-skipping horse rides at night remind us of what being a Traveller means, at its best.
In the press notes, Murphy notes that there is a lot of discrimination towards Travellers, and his film is an attempt to combat that. He’s an outsider to the community, and while he doesn’t shy away from showing the hardships, the film ultimately privileges lyrical imagery over harsher realities. By largely confining the film to the titular tin castle and its surrounding roadside landscape, Murphy leaves much of the family’s interior lives opaque.
The film’s most compelling tension emerges through the eldest son, who clearly feels both pride in and uncertainty about his family’s way of life. Yet beyond him, many of the children remain somewhat indistinct, more emblematic of a lifestyle than fully developed individuals. ests he shares his longing.
Discover one film you didn’t know you needed
Not in the zeitgeist. Not pushed by streamers.
But still easy to find — and worth sitting with.
And a guide to help you do just that.
