SHORT FILM - IRELAND
Best Direction - Ireland (2025)
2025
SHORT FILM
- IRELAND
(Best Direction - Ireland)
Night Driver - Michael Carolan
Emer Durcan
Shortlist
| Film Title: | Night Driver |
|---|---|
| Director: | Michael Carolan |
| Producer: | Emer Durcan |
| Entrant Company: | Western Front Studios Ltd. Ireland |
| Editor: | Julian Ulrichs |
| Post Production Company: | First Element Post |
| Brief Synopsis: | Ngozi, a first-generation African immigrant, tries to make ends meet driving a late-night taxi in Dublin city – a place of economic disparity and rising tension. It is a dangerous shift, met with drunks, violence and run offs. The only protection she has for herself is a video dash cam on her window – which is constantly rolling. Her nights are lonely, staring out at dark streets and bright billboards of Eve – an Irish fashion model who seems to have it All. Ngozi is supporting her children Philipa (14) and Samuel (8) as a single mother. She is separated from her husband after discovering he had an affair with another woman. At the start of the film, we find Ngozi is homeless, having recently been evicted from her apartment and desperately trying to find a new place to house her children. The situation is straining their relationship – as Ngozi leaves the kids in petrol stations or with friends while she works at night and sleeps in the car. Ngozi wants to show she can provide and is too proud to admit defeat, but it can’t last much longer… Ngozi is tough, hardy and of a devout Christian faith – but under a reserved exterior lies a seething bitterness and anger from her past she has not been addressed. One night in the city, Ngozi picks up a passenger. A woman gets in – it’s Eve. Eve is accompanied by another man, Brandon – who Ngozi recognises as not being her well-publicised husband, John. Eve and the man start flirting and kissing in the back of her taxi – unknown that they are being recorded by the dash cam. Ngozi is repulsed by Eve’s actions but keeps quiet. Eve and the man go to a hotel together and Ngozi drives Off. Ngozi becomes obsessed with the incident and Eve’s seemingly perfect life, stalking and following her in person as a repressed bitterness bubbles to the surface. As Ngozi’s homeless situation gets worse and her two children are endangered after going missing on the streets – Ngozi decides she has no option but to get money another way. She calls Eve at home with her husband John and new baby. Ngozi tells Eve she has footage of her being unfaithful in her taxi and threatens to leak it if she doesn’t comply. Ngozi meets Eve in the city and they drive to a car park. A distressed Eve is ready with an envelope of money. After a battle of wits, an emotional and upset Eve hands over the money demanding Ngozi erase the footage. She asks why Ngozi wants to destroy her life. Ngozi says it’s not personal – but Eve doesn’t believe it. Eve tells Ngozi she loves her family and that Ngozi is an ‘evil woman’. Ngozi realises Eve is vulnerable, fallible and human – and a mirror is held up to how cruel Ngozi has become. Days later, Ngozi drives Philipa and Samuel to a housing estate in a leafy suburban area. She pulls up to a house and tells the children that this is their new home. Ngozi lets the kids into the house, the family rejoice just as Ngozi’s husband rings. The children ask to speak to their absent father. Ngozi allows them – the two children enthusiastically speak to their Dad. Ngozi leaves and goes back to the car. The emotional toll of her husband’s infidelity and the act of betraying her morals to provide for her family finally hits her. She tears up and cries. Ngozi straightens herself up. She gets in the taxi one last time, she takes the dash cam but does she delete the footage?. |
| Writer/Concept: | Michael Carolan |
| Completion Date: | 2025-01-31 |
| Colourist: | Natalia Witowski |
| Cinematographer: | Brian Durcan |
| Production Designer: | Saoirse O'Shea |
| Sound: | Sound Design: Rob Flynn and Sound Recordist: Anthony Egan |
| Music Composer: | Die Hexen |
| Casting: | Shauna Griffith |
| Key Cast Members: | Charis Agbonlahor |
| Key Cast Members: | Sophie Vavasseur |
| Key Cast Members: | Sive Doyle |
| Key Cast Members: | Memphis Oniru |
| Key Cast Members: | Denny Baptist |
| Key Cast Members: | Fiach Kunz |
| Other: | Cinematographer - Brian Durcan |
| Other: | Producer - Emer Durcan |
| Other: | Editor - Julian Ulrichs |
| Other: | Composer - Die Hexen |
| Other: | Sound Designer - Rob Flynn |
| Other: | Production Designer - Saoirse O'Shea |
JPG
