Documentaries review - FROM COOLEA TO IONA by Dònal O'Cèallachair

The western world seems light years away from the Coolea, Ireland, and documentarian Dònal O'Cèallachair seems to downright take us to a different universe in his latest work From Coolea to Iona, which was presented at the 59th Cork Film Festival.
 
Founded by the legendary Irish composer Sèan O'Riada in 1963 and continued on by his son Peadar after his death, The Coolea Men's Choir - or in Irish Còr Chùil Aodha - fully embodies the spirit of a land full of poetry and music in the Irish countryside western region. In a landmark setting full of tradition and passionately preserving Irish heritage through its tightknit community, the primary use of the Irish language and with its beautiful distinctive art, From Coolea to Iona follows the central choir as they practice over a period of eight weeks, as they get ready for a historic journey to Iona, an island off the Western coast of Scotland.

 

Director Donal O'Cèilleachair does not waste too much time in telling the history of the choir and the land. We are more or less instantly and unceremoniosly taken into the world of tradition, nostalgia and even alienation, with charming inhabitants leading a simple and quiet life away from the huffing and puffing of modern westernised civilisations. The setting being a particularly beautiful part of Ireland, the filmmaker knows well enough to glorify the story's environment and allows plenty of room for the landscape, the green of the valleys and the blue of the skies that in themselves become a central character in the film on top of giving a sense of the fantastic, the magical and the mysterious.
 
But on top of the subjects and the photography being totally enchanting and fascinating, From Coolea to Iona is also a work of great creative synergy, and as such, the unhurried pacing of the film too allows for added intimacy and a fulfilling meditative aura. This in turn embodies and represents another key driving force behind the film - a theme preached by Peadar and his Choir, a creed that recites about the need for physical energy, spiritual energy and creative energy. The other driving course, which is of a more narrative journey, is of the importance of the journey of these men to Iona, joined by the President of Ireland Micheal D. Higgins.