Berlinale: Black 47 showcases Irish filming locations

The story follows an Irishman who returns home after fighting for the English overseas and uses his military skills to seek vengeance against the English when he finds his family dead and dying.

The Black 47 production team focussed its shoot on County Kildare and County Wicklow in the east, and in Galway in the west.

“Harristown House in Brannockstown, County Kildare, was the location for our Irish Constabulary Barracks,” says the film’s location manager Rossa O’Neill, in comments to KFTV.

“Lord Kilmichael (a racist English landowner in the story) took up residence in Russborough House and the people of Hollywood Village, County Wicklow, welcomed us with open arms.

“When looking for a vast unspoiled landscape, our search brought us to Connemara, County Galway. When you open your eyes to it, evidence of the famine is still clearly visible all over Ireland.

"These locations were chosen by spending a lot of time researching and travelling across the country with our production designer Waldemar Kalinowski and director Lance Daly.”

The Irish leg of the shoot was filmed entirely on location with a few local set builds, including a village afflicted by famine that was built in Hollywood, County Wicklow.

O’Neill and his team had to find locations that matched the characters’ journeys as they moved through the Irish countryside.

“The main challenge we faced was trying to find this path in a landscape and environment that fit the map created by Lance,” says O’Neill.

“In the end of course it was worth the effort and being part of this film means a great deal to many of the people involved. Cinematically, this is our untold history and the importance of it is enormous.”

Selected interiors were filmed in Luxembourg as the movie’s financial backers included the Luxembourg Film Fund.

Ireland’s production industry is based around Dublin and County Wicklow. However, films and TV shows are starting to shift further west as regional infrastructure – such as Troy Studios outside Limerick - continues to develop.

See KFTV's production guide for more on filming in Ireland.

Images courtesy of Rossa O'Neill