U2 ‘Every Breaking Wave’ Belfast short film by Aoife McCardle is released

Belfast Telegraph (2015-02-12)

Short film is love story set across the sectarian divide WARNING: video contains strong language

U2 have released the video for Every Breaking Wave that was filmed in the New Lodge area of Belfast.

The film was made by Belfast filmmaker Aoife McCardle. The 13-minute video is love story set across the sectarian divide that follows two teenagers, one Catholic and the other Protestant, who fall in love during the Troubles.

The story plays out on the streets of Northern Ireland during the early 1980s, at a time when violence, animosity and tension were rife.

The short tells the tale of two teenagers of opposing religions – a Catholic boy called Sean and his love interest, a Protestant girl from the Shankill. Akin to Romeo and Juliet, the two teens fall in love amidst ongoing strife in their hometown, trying to overcome the odds.

The film is centered around “Every Breaking Wave” and “The Troubles,” two tracks drawn from U2’s most recent album Songs of Innocence but opens with Stiff Little Fingers’ Alternative Ulster.

U2 band member The Edge has praised Aoife’s work labeling it “extraordinary”.

“The Aoife McArdle short film expands on the theme of Songs of Innocence which was largely rooted in our experience growing up in the early eighties in Dublin. Aoife chose west Belfast in the same period, as it was the neighborhood that was so formative to her,” he said.

The Edge is not Aoife’s only notable fan.

Academy Award nominated filmmaker Spike Jonze, said of Aoife McArdle’s short film, “I was really taken with this film. She captured that feeling and size of life of being a teenager and of first love so well. She drifts between the reality of friends and first love into fantasy so effortlessly and romantically. It’s a perfect little gem of a romance movie.”

Aoife has previously directed music videos for James Vincent McMorrow and Simian Mobile Disco.

The London-based talent plans to move back to her native Belfast soon to work on her first feature film. “A lot of films in Northern Ireland don’t get shot in Northern Ireland, which is quite strange. A lot of people feel like it’s too close to the bone to go there. Or are too afraid to go there. I don’t know why.”

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