JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

THURSDAY 20TH FEBRUARY
SPECIAL PRESENTATION
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2014
ELIZA LYNCH:
QUEEN OF PARAGUAY
Thurs 20 Feb / Savoy 1 / 8pm / 80 minutes
Writer-director: Alan Gilsenan 2013 Ireland
Cast: Leryn Franco, Maria Doyle Kennedy
This absorbing Irish documentary recounts the
life of Eliza Lynch, the Cork-born beauty who is
revered in Paraguay as a national heroine. Guided by
Michael Lillis and Ronan Fanning – the authors of her
meticulously researched biography – director Alan
Gilsenan (whose A Vision also screens at JDIFF this
year – see page 78) takes us on an epic journey from
famine-stricken Ireland to the battlefields of South
America’s bloodiest war.
The film’s emotional heart is provided by Maria
Doyle Kennedy’s hypnotic interpretation of Lynch,
looking back on her life from beyond the grave
and confronting her many enemies who branded
her an avaricious whore. These dramatized scenes
are juxtaposed with a series of beautiful, often
melancholy images shot in contemporary Paraguay.
In interviews with the country’s elite, the hunt for the
historical Lynch evolves into an exploration of the
disastrous war her lover, the dictator Francisco Solano
López, launched against Brazil and Argentina.
Gilsenan has delivered a film that helps rescue one of
the great Irish lives of the 19th century from obscurity
while opening a fascinating window onto what is
perhaps South America’s least-known country and
the apocalyptic conflagration that still haunts its
society.
Tom Hennigan
The Irish Times South America Correspondent
With special guests Alan Gilsenan and
Maria Doyle Kennedy
86 BOOK ONLINE AT JDIFF.COM