Lately I have become more and more captivated by the work of the Irish co-directors Christine Molloy and Joe Lawler. They started their film-making under the production title Desperate Optimists in 2004 with a number of short films leading to Joy in 2008. Joy is a 9 minutes film about a girl who has gone missing after a farewell from her friends in the local park. Their next production was their debut feature film Helen (2008) about a classmate of Joy who is asked to play the Joy part in a police-organized reconstruction. Seeing this film Helen and their next one Mister John (2013) with similar themes made me fascinated by their unique approach to filmmaking and to their original, somewhat mysterious, grasp of identity themes.

Helen is selected by the police to participate in the reconstruction of the disappearance of Joy. Helen is an introverted, shy girl who lives in a care home. Her parents abandoned her at an early age. For the reconstruction she wears the yellow jacket that Joy wore when she was seen in the park for the last time. Slowly we see Helen creep step-by-step deeper into the life of Joy. She gets to meet Joy’s parents who are warm and hospitable to her. She gets to talk to Joy’s boyfriend who is the first boy she really relates to. It becomes an opportunity for her to redefine who she is and to start on a new journey towards an identity that has been hidden so far.

And here we find the theme that Molloy and Lawler continue to explore in their films in many creative ways. Every meeting with a new person gives an opportunity to see life differently. As Irishmen they identify with people who are not sure where they belong and therefore if they are in the life they want to live. For different reasons people are or may feel uprooted and the promise of a better life is beckoning. This dream for a better life makes them go on a journey as desperate optimists. And through their storytelling they ask us: is it time to keep moving, to keep traveling, to keep transforming?

After their two drama films Molloy and Lawler made two documentary films, once again in a unique manner. Further Beyond from 2016 and The Future Tense from 2022 are voice-over documentaries, documentary material interspersed with text readings. Further Beyond is the story of 18th century Irishman Ambrose O’Higgins and his remarkable journey from Ireland to Chile, where he later became governor of Chile. But it is also the story of Lawler’s mother Helen, born in New York, brought to Ireland as a child, and as a young adult moved back to New York in pursuit of new dreams. The two stories come together around the themes of dreams, migration and displacement.

The Future Tense is a very personal essay movie, in which Molloy and Lawler take a deep look at themselves and their family histories. After having lived twenty years in London, they are considering a move back to Ireland, becoming more and more aware of feeling alien in England. Belongingness, home and identity is meditated on in highly ingenious ways. Whatever you get your hands on from this director-team, take your time and allow yourself to be taken along to the further beyond, the search for identity and journeys needed.

Rinus, April 2025

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