KING OF THE TRAVELLERS

Released on DVD & Blu Ray this week.

Directed by Mark O’Connor
Starring Michael Collins, Thomas Collins, John Connors, Peter Coonan and
Packy Lee

King of the Travellers is a contemporary drama grounded in the traditions of the Irish traveller community
and driven by emotive Shakespearean themes of love, betrayal, friendship and revenge. The story follows
John Paul Moorehouse on his destructive quest to uncover the truth about the killer of his father twelve
years ago. John Paul’s desire for revenge is swayed as he falls for Winnie Power, the daughter of the
man he suspects killed his father. John Paul must now battle between his consuming passion for justice
versus his desire to be with the woman he now loves.

That is the official press release for King Of The Travellers which I was very lucky enough to view a couple of weeks ago.

What a lovely film. Dont get me wrong. I dont mean lovely in a Disney sense, Far from it. But there is something wonderful for a film fan when they see a film they hadnt heard of, hadnt planned on watching and yet someone passes it to you to view.

I really enjoyed this film. Its very well written, brilliantly acted and directed and is just a breath of fresh air. Highly recommended for anyone whos getting a little fed up with the same old Hollywood fodder.

I was really fortunate twice in connection with this film. Firstly to be able to see the film but secondly to be able to conduct a short email interview with Writer/Director Mark O’Connor with the help of the wonderful people at Metrodome Group.

I must admit I was a little nervous about conducting the interview as to be honest I knew zero about Irish Travellers (or any travellers to be honest)

Would I ask the wrong question? Could I type the wrong thing and upset Mark.

All in all I think it went wonderfully and Mark was very kind to reply in length to the short amount of questions that I came up with about the film and its creation. So its with great pleasure that I print here. The interview with myself and the creator of King Of The Travellers. Mr Mark O’Connor.

The DVD & Blu ray is available from April 1st from all good stockist.

FromPage2Screen: When you first conceived the idea of making King Of The Travellers was there ever a ‘pressure’ to make the film more comical, like the unrealistic performances of ‘travellers’ we had seen in so many mainstream films. (I hope there was no pressure as its about time a genuine film came along that portrayed a community accurately)

Mark: There was huge pressure firstly in the script phase. Originally a lot of people told me not to write a film about travellers as no one would want

to see it. Then during the writing I experienced more of the same negativity. People recommended I shouldn’t show the bare knuckle boxing

or any violence or the council evicting travellers as they felt it was too close to the bone. I wanted this film to be the bone…no skin…a real

traveller film for travellers which didn’t sympathise or glamorise. I wanted it to be from the inside out. The casting was a huge struggle. Many

people involved wanted theatre actors or settled people and I found most of them weren’t capable of realistically portraying a traveller. I was

very strict on the casting. One actor tried to convince me he was a fully fledged traveller but I found out he was half Gypsy!

FromPage2Screen: Great move by casting real travellers who were also non-actors in so many roles. How easy was it to persuade them that they could in fact pull it off?

Mark: A lot of the travellers didn’t know what to expect. I spent a lot of time on halting sites meeting and talking to them and those meetings were like auditions

as I was trying to work out if they’d be capable of performing in front of a camera. In the process I discovered some real talents and others struggled a

little and found it more difficult. I spent a year getting to know different traveller families and slowly built the cast that way. All the travellers were really open and

friendly and let me into their homes and gave me cups of tea and most of them were interested to be involved and believed they would be capable which

they were. As a director it was up to me to create an environment where they felt comfortable to perform. I’d start the audition by asking them to take turns

singing a song and that would break the ice! After that performing was easier.

FromPage2Screen: If you had to select one major thing you learned from your previous film that you felt helped you a ton in ‘King’ what would it be?

Mark: From my first film Between the Canals I learnt more about plot,how to work with actors, how to engage with a community and cast better, how to shoot big action sequences, how to use music more effectively,

how to drive the ship so that it all runs smoothly and cast, crew and stunts all work together instead of separately. How to take on ideas and go with your gut while also sticking strictly to your vision. I learnt alot from the experience.   

FromPage2Screen::How was the film received when it travelled the film festival circuit?

Mark:It was selected for Galway Film Festival. We are currently sending it to other festivals around the world.

FromPage2Screen One thing I always like to ask is to hear how you ‘pitch’ this particular film. go on. pitch King of The Travellers to the audience.

Mark: King of the Travellers is an authentic look at a community which often gets misrepresented and rarely portrayed correctly in film or television.

This is no Gypsy wedding. This is the real deal. It may not be perfect or pretty but it’s their life. Everything in this film is based on real events

and nothing is exploited or glamorised. The films of the past have cast mostly actors to play travellers but in this film 95 percent of the cast

playing travellers are real travellers.

A huge thank you to Mark O’Connor for taking the time to ‘chat’ with me. I wish him all the best for the films journey and the future films he will make.

Ill end this by highly recommending the film which is most definitely worth watching. Trust me, youll love it.