Town of Strangers

Town of Strangers

82 mins / Ireland / 2021 / Writer-Director Treasa O’Brien

Q&A with director Treasa O’Brien

Speakers: Treasa O’Brien, Vusi Thabethe

“So many documentaries you see now are exploitative or sensationalist. Town of Strangers, on the other hand, was complex and unresolved, mysterious and restrained, just like most real people.”
– Alice Maher, RTÉ Something for the Weekend

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“O’Brien auditions for people to come and be involved in her documentary, and these “audition” scenes evolve into being the central part of the film itself: where people simply talk about their lives, where they’ve come from and what they expect of Gort. We hear from Brazilian people, Syrian people, Afghan people, Irish Travellers and English hippies.

This film is an invigorating, refreshing experience because of its clear-sighted compassion and lack of parochialism, its interest in other people from other cultures, its force lies in the simple candour of her interviewees. As films have so often in the past, Town of Strangers proves that there is great cinematic impact in the simple spectacle of people talking about themselves.”

★★★★ Peter Bradshaw, Film Critic, The Guardian

Executive produced by Oscar nominee Joshua Oppenheimer, with cinematography by Treasa O’Brien and Gina Ferrer, edited by Mirjam Strugalla, produced by Martha O’Neill, Wildfire Films.

Town of Strangers was funded through an Arts Council Film Project Award and a CREATE Artist-in-the-community award. It has been screened in FLYING BROOM TURKEY 2020, Docs Ireland Belfast 2019, Galway Film Fleadh July 2018, is distributed by Access Cinema and is available on the IFI Player in ROI. It is distributed by New Wave Films in the UK, and was released in UK Cinemas in 2023 receiving a 4 star review by The Guardian, on its premiere at the ICA London. It was named as one of the Best Films of 2023 in the Guardian.

Town of Strangers screens as part of Love, Rage & Solidarity, a solo exhibition by Treasa O’Brien.