New movie brings Kildare bog to the big screen

Shot on Lullymore Bog in Kildare, Peat is a dark fantasy comedy about an underappreciated widow who builds a mythological creature out of peat to work the bog.

Director and writer of the film, Paudie Baggott, recently attended the second screening of the Screen Ireland funded film Peat at Dublin International Film Festival (DIFF) which has been well-received by screening audiences.

After the success of the screening, it was announced that the film is up for a Discovery Award for this year’s DIFF awards ceremony on 1 March.

Limerick-born Paudie, has used Kildare as the setting for two of his short films,  Peat and Rip to the Rescue which was the winner of many awards when it came out in 2019.

Paudie described Kildare as a “film friendly” location, which he discovered when he secured funding from Kildare County Council, with great help from the council’s arts officer Lucina Russell, for the sci-fi, fantasy film Rip to the Rescue.

He said: “Shooting Kildare as an absolute gift for ‘Rip’ because we had such a low budget, such a low budget but such high ambition.

“It was Lucina Russell who was the Irish officer at the time, she was very proactive. So that was a wonderful experience.” 

It only made sense then to shoot a movie about a bog creature in the budget-friendly Kildare, which happens to have an abundance of bogland.

“Shooting in Kildare meant that people could travel from Dublin so we didn't have to necessarily pay for accommodation, which can be a massive cost.” 

“We had a very specific remit that we needed to shoot on a bog. And I wanted it to look epic and mythic. I didn't want it to feel like we were shooting in a tiny corner of a field.” 

He continued: “Locations manager Rob Nolan found Lullymore Heritage Park and it just was ideal.” 

“We had access to a bog that we could control, and if we're looking one way, all we see is the bog and it feels like we're in the middle of nowhere, but if we turn around, there's like a car park and there's a cafe there and there's toilets and there's warm cabins that we can do the makeup in and put the costume and put the actors in. There was an incredible amount of facilities.” 

Paudie has a particular interest in a mashup of parochial Irish attitudes and the magic associated with our culture that lives on the edge of our daily lives.

He explained: “I love the clash of the different ideologies. One of the things that always makes me laugh is on every May Day, my dad would go out into the field to bless the fields with holy water to keep the fairies away. 

“We believe in a Roman Catholic God, and we believe in fairies. But he doesn't really believe in either of those things. it's tradition and culture. It's not even a belief at that point, it's literally just a kind of rote response because that's what we've always done.” 

It is no wonder then where Paudie gets the inspiration for his style, which is described as “character comedy with a strong sense of magical realism to tell personal stories”.

“I grew up on a farm, none of my family are artists or creative people, you know, farmers and builders and teachers. And so I've kind of been immersed in that my entire life, but loved sci-fi, loved fantasy. “So I think it's always been that kind of mash of the parochial Irish, rural kind of way of being in this kind of fantastical framework,” he concluded.

Paudie is definitely one to watch with many more creative projects in the pipeline including a short climate crisis satire, a TV show called Felt about a puppet in his late 30s who struggles with his emotions, and the development of Peat into a longer, feature film.

The writer-director is always looking to share creative ideas and partner up to develop projects, so creatives are welcomed to get in touch.

Information on Paudie and his work is available on his website at: https://www.paudiebaggott.ie/.