About the Film:

When his daughter is born with an affliction warned of in fable, a widowed father struggles to defy the violent superstitions of their rural community.

Director Biography:

An award-winning film director/writer and Honours graduate of the esteemed National Film School IADT Dún Laoghaire, Ciarán Hickey’s short film credits include ‘The Boy Murder’ (2015), DLR’s ‘The Lighthouse’ (2018), ‘Just Fine’ (2018), and ‘Terrible Things’ (2021). With a penchant for imaginative genre storytelling focused on otherworldly elements mingled with searing reality-based drama, his work has shown all over the world at various prestigious film festivals hosted in the likes of Los Angeles, Hong Kong, London, Chicago, Poland, and across his native Ireland.

Ciarán’s latest short film – the atmospheric folk-horror ‘Callus’ (2023) – is his first project funded under Screen Ireland, the country’s agency for the Irish film and television industry. ‘Callus’ also signals another project undertaken between Ciarán and producer Finbarr Crotty (The Boy Murder) with the team at Irish production company Bear Print Media.