By Sally Collins

FRESH off of a big win at First Cut Youth Film Festival, Farran film director George Lynch shows no signs of slowing down as his short film which was shot entirely in West Cork, acquires national prestige in film festivals across the country.

George (24) is a graduate of UCC’s Film and Screen Media MA programme, receiving the prestigious Lord Puttnam Scholarship in 2023.

His latest short film, Fragmented was written and directed as part of his Master’s thesis, in which he explored the depiction of war in cinema.

Director George Lynch behind the scenes of Fragmented.

The film follows a teenage girl, Lilly, played by Cork actress Sarah Faye Terry, as she awaits the return of her father from World War One.

Her father returns wearing a prosthetic mask as he has acquired facial disfigurement from the battlefield.

He is also suffering from PTSD, or shell shock as it was known in the 20th century.

George explains that Lilly was ‘not ready for was how much change had he had undergone during his service, the psychological changes….and the physical changes as well.’

‘Fragmented was created almost entirely by a Cork-based crew,’ he revealed. ‘Shooting took place across four days at an Airbnb in Newcestown, owned by Willie and Carmel O’Mahony. Lynch said the couple were ‘the most loveliest people ever. They were one hundred percent accommodating.’

The short film’s Cork connections remained at the heart of this project for the director: ‘One of the things I’m most proud of making this film is the amount of Cork talent, cast and crew that was involved in this production because there really is this brilliant community of artists and filmmakers in Cork that are so passionate and hardworking.’

George has been making films since he was 13 years old and believes that ‘there is no such thing as an ‘anti-war’ film because the depiction of war in itself, the glamorization of it, kind of undermines that sentiment, and so he wanted to explore a project that focuses on the aftermath of conflict: ‘I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could make a film that could be deemed as anti-war, or specifically a film that tackles the subject and the contents of war without glamorizing the action or the violence of it, something that focuses more on the consequence, the aftermath, the destruction.’

Lilly’s father Arthur’s mask is unnerving, almost uncanny. George was inspired by real-life post-war practices for the creation and depiction of the mask.

‘The mask was inspired by the work of Anna Coleman Ladd and Francis Derwent Wood, they were kind of the two main sculptors that pushed this development movement for creating prosthetic masks for WWI veterans,’ he said.

The prosthetic used for the film was created by makeup artist Maeve O’Sullivan, who said the project was ‘right up her alley.’

Life for veterans returning from the battlefields was tough, a concept which often went unexplored at the time.

While researching for the film, Lynch found that there were ‘a couple accounts of families related to the veterans after they got the mask, but there was very, very little follow-up about the lives they lived afterwards.’

‘Life for the average veteran after the First World War was not great with the economy, homelessness, losing jobs, the mental health side of it, especially with shell shock,’ he said. ‘And a part of me was imagining how difficult would all these things be?’

The filmmaker hopes that exploring these issues in a historical context will help create more understanding for refugees escaping war-torn countries seeking safety here in Ireland.

‘We live in Ireland as a sheltered community from the physical confrontations of war…for those who were unfortunate to have lived through it and experienced it, unfortunately, they still carry that trauma of the war. It’s something that stays with you.’

Ireland’s unique position as a safe country in a global context opens it up to refugees from places like Ukraine, Syria and Gaza, where, in Lynch’s eyes, ‘the trauma of war always lingers’. Lynch dreams that his film will help Irish people ‘give an open heart and to be accepting and to help those who are coming over here’.

The film recently received critical approval after George picked up the ‘Best Director’ award at the First Cut Youth Film Festival on March 7th.

The festival, held in Youghal, showcases films by young artists, as well as offering workshops and talks from industry professionals.

Although delighted with the award, the director stays humble, and credits the cast and crew with the film’s merits: ‘It’s very nice, but if I have to be honest…the only reason the film has gotten this far is because of the amazing cast and crew behind the film. So I’m very thankful, I’m very grateful for everyone who made this film and to have made it as good as it could be.’

So what’s next for the young filmmaker? Fragmented has been entered into On The Pulse Short Film Festival in Belfast, as well as Schull’s own Fastnet Film Festival, which takes place in May.

Although Lynch is very happy with how the short film turned out, one day he might make it into a feature-length film: ‘There’s still so much content and themes to be explored, into the setting, into the characters…that would be amazing to explore without the confines of a 10-15 minute run time, but that is for one day. Who knows when!’

Daniel Fitzgibbon as Arthur in Fragmented.