Rosie

Does the hotel have room for a family of six, for a week? No? For a few days, then? Only for tonight? It’s always the same banter by Rosie, while her three youngest children are playing in the back seat of the car and the eldest is trying to do homework. Since she was evicted with her boyfriend, this Irish mother has spent every day in a stuffed-full car looking for a place to catch her breath and from there to find permanent accommodation, but in practice, it’s hard enough to find a place to sleep for the night.

Rosie is obviously an indictment of the housing problem in Ireland. But above all, it’s a gripping portrait of a mother who is mangled by circumstances and deserves a medal for patience. Like the Dardenne Brothers, director Paddy Breathnach stays close to the brilliant acting of Sarah Green and makes a contemporary kitchen-sink drama that gets increasingly oppressive.