Operating as writer and market gardener from his base in rural Kilkenny, Hubert Butler explored
Eastern Europe and the Balkans, establishing himself as “Ireland's Orwell”, our greatest
essayist since Jonathan Swift. In this, the first documentary on Butler and his work, Johnny
Gogan traces the writer's journey through Stalinist Russia of the early 1930s, through prewar
Vienna where Butler worked to smuggle Jews into Ireland, to his his exposure of the hidden
genocide of half a million Orthodox Serbs in WW2. Using recently declassified documents, this
highly visual and expansive film explores why Butler “was fifty years ahead of his time” and “one
of the great Irish writers".
Poet Chris Agee and biographer Robert Tobin lead the line of an impressive set of contributors
in Johnny Gogan's fifth feature film in drama and documentary and his follow up to Black Ice
which premiered at this festival in 2013. Steve Wickham (The Waterboys) provides an original
score with a suitably Balkan flavour while the film's visual sweep is assisted by rich archive
footage.