31 March. The tenth edition of Irish Film Festa, the festival dedicated entirely to Irish cinema, continues at 16.00 on Friday 31 March in the Sala Deluxe at the Casa del Cinema with Irish Classic: John Boorman’s The General (1998), about the Dublin criminal Martin Cahill, played in the film by Brendan Gleeson.

This is followed at 19.00 with Irish Cinema and the Troubles, a conference by Prof. Martin McLoone (University of Ulster, Emeritus) who will examine how the Troubles in Northern Ireland was represented in films such as Angel, Some Mother’s Son, Nothing Personal, The Boxer, and Hunger.

At 21.00 the festival screens the documentary Bobby Sands: 66 Days by Brendan J. Byrne, dedicated to the 66 days of hunger strike in 1981 that led to the death of Bobby Sands in prison of Long Kesh. The film examines the symbolic and cultural value of fasting in an Irish historic-political context and is based on Sands’ prison diaries, narrated by actor Martin McCann who will be present alongside journalist Riccardo Michelucci.

Parallel to the conference Irish Cinema and the Troubles, the festival holds screens eight short films in the Sala Kodak at 19.00.

The Irish Film Festa takes place from 30 March to 2 April at its usual venue, the Casa del Cinema in Rome. All films are screened in their original language versions with Italian subtitles. Entry is free. For full details see website.