REVIEW: ‘Pilgrim Hill’ – A Lonely Life in Rural Ireland

While it may not be the most cheerful of movies, Pilgrim Hill will make you empathise, while feeling relief that this life is not yours...

By Genna Patterson

Pilgrim Hill captures the melancholy life of a rural Irish farmer with a delicate, careful touch. While both tragic and hopeless, it is never dull and always fascinating. The movie focuses on forty-something farmer, Jimmy Walsh, who lives with his ailing father on a run-down farm in the West.

Jimmy has little in his life other than the farm. He can go for days with no conversation, unless you count the cows on the hills as companions, and Jimmy does. Seven days a week, he tends to the animals, sews seed, fixes things beyond repair and ensures his father is cared for.

The people he sees are his father’s carer Ann, the man at the shop and his one friend, Tommy who is the only lively thing in Jimmy’s life. Jimmy’s life is mundane, bleak and melancholy and he yearns for more with more than a tinge of regret. His father barely speaks to him and no one seems all that interested in him. Just when you think life can’t get any worse for Jimmy, he gets terrible news about the only thing he cares about – his cows.

Pilgrim Hill studies Jimmy in a part-documentary, part feature film way. At times, he speaks directly to the camera, essentially thinking out loud, while at other times, the camera is the unseen eye in his life.

In contrast to Jimmy’s lonely life, with a father we never actually get to see, is the vibrant, optimistic Tommy. He calls over for a chat and a cuppa and seems to be the only highlight in an otherwise dreary life for Jimmy. Tommy talks of travelling to Abu Dhabi or Canada, as there is no work in their local town. When he suggests that Jimmy travels, the idea is dismissed as alien and absurd.

Where the movie leaves off, you are unsure what will happen next for Jimmy, stranded in a way of living from old times, that cannot keep up with the future. The entire movie is shot in low light – Jimmy cleans, shaves and eats without putting on the house lights and perhaps this is to signify the lack of light in his life. It is dim, just as his hopes are. Even the outdoor shots appear to be shot on very dull days, or in the near evening when light is scarce.

Joe Mullins gives an outstanding performance as Jimmy, and manages to make you really care about the character. The support cast are convincing and the vibrant Tommy secures the only really fun moments in this film with ease. But just because this film isn't filled with action or fun, doesn't mean its not interesting. The mundane existence is actually incredibly fascinating to watch.

The director of Pilgrim Hill, a 24-year old Kerry man, Gerard Barrett, ensures that you are involved in Jimmy’s life with the use of the close up documentary style confession we have become used to on so many reality shows. He made Pilgrim Hill on a budget of €4500, and was selected as the ‘Great Expectation’ of the Telluride Film Festival. Barrett also won the IFTA Rising Star Award this year and the Bingham Ray New Talent Award at the Galway Film Fleadh last year for Pilgrim Hill.

Pilgrim Hill is a beautiful portrayal of modern life leaving the old behind with regret. Jimmy wants a different life, but cannot see himself doing anything else. He is uneducated and too shut off from the world to find his way back. At times, Pilgrim Hill is truly heartbreaking, but also makes you feel some sort of relief that you don't live Jimmy’s limited life. A moving, quality film which will carve a place in your heart.

Release date April 12th nationwide.