Once Upon a Time in a Cinema

On a Friday evening in the 1980s, things go haywire at a small Irish village cinema. As the sold-out thriller Breathless (1983) plays in real-time on the big screen, we follow cinema owner Earl Clancy through the most hectic night of his life. Equipment fails, the audience grows restless, and financial worries loom over him. With a director who grew up in his father’s cinema, Once Upon a Time in a Cinema transforms a nostalgic experience into an engaging, comic drama. Yet what begins as a chaotic race against the clock evolves into a heartwarming ode to the big screen—one that, through a cathartic finale, demonstrates how the shared experience of cinema can unite a community.

Once Upon a Time in a Cinema opened the Dublin International Film Festival earlier this year. Remarkably, even before its general release in Irish cinemas, a special screening took place at the Royal Theatre in Limerick, where the film was shot. The screening at the Noordelijk Film Festival marks the Dutch premiere.