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An impressive directorial debut from British photographer Perry Ogden, Pavee Lackeen offers an intimate and unsentimental portrait of Ireland's much-maligned traveller community. In a series of loosely connected episodes, the film concentrates on 10-year-old Winnie Maughan, who lives with her illiterate mother and her many siblings in a Dublin roadside trailer. Suspended from school, Winnie wanders the city's streets whilst the authorities plan to move the family to a different site.
Shot on hand-held cameras and using a mainly non-professional cast, the freely improvised Pavee Lackeen blurs the boundaries between documentary and fiction. And in refusing to turn Winnie into a stereotypical victim, the film affirms her ingenuity and resilience in the face of poverty and prejudice.
