Timmy Sugrue is a persecuted guesthouse keeper and writer who lives with his mad mother in a very rainy part of the Irish midlands. His only consolation are his visits to Dr. Drudy, a psychiatrist whom he can tell about the love of his life - the President of Ireland. A new motorway puts Timmy's guesthouse off the map. A strange Spanish pilot named Marcel comes to visit and create havoc in the guesthouse. Timmy goes to a scriptwriters' conference where only fast, urban and up-beat stories are expected, nothing like Timmy's own story. Uneasy in any of the four provinces of Ireland, he desperately tries to reach the Fifth Province, the province of magic, of passion, of possibility.
Acting
Brían F. O'Byrne's fragile, desperate Timmy breaks your heart.
Direction
Stapleton's surreal Midlands dreamscape defies Irish cinema norms.
Writing
Meta-narrative about rejected stories becomes the story itself.
Director
Frank Stapleton
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 'Fifth Province' refers to a medieval Irish concept of a mystical center beyond the four traditional provinces—here weaponized as psychological escape.
President Mary Robinson was actually in office during filming; the film's fantasy of presidential romance was scandalously plausible Irish wish-fulfillment.
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