A new Irish film set in Kildare in 1995 is coming to Amazon Prime on Thursday, June 4th. “Dating Amber” is the story of Eddie and Amber, both secondary school students who are gay. They decide to fake a relationship to halt the taunts of schoolmates.
It stars Fionn O’Shea as Eddie, recently seen as Marianne’s boyfriend Jamie in Normal People, a role which saw him briefly become more hated than Thierry Henry and Bertie combined. The film also features Lola Pettigrew, Sharon Horgan, Barry Ward and Ian O’Reilly and is directed by David Freyne.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One, the director called the film a “love letter to Kildare, growing up and coming of age”.
“I’m so used to seeing queer films where you’re dying of aids or you’re really being persecuted,” said Freyne, who also elaborated on the process of making Dating Amber.
“It’s a very bleak view of your future. I just always thought that we deserved to see our experiences framed with heart, warmth and comedy. I really wanted to make that kind of film. I wanted to make the kind of film that I wished I had [seen] growing up; something that has a hopeful message, a hopefully ending and is ultimately about these two kids who end up becoming best friends.
“So we tried to make it a couple of years ago and kind of failed and then after a first feature it was easier, you get a lot of no’s particularly when dealing with gay characters and a lot of the no’s you get is that its either too funny for a gay film – which you are actually told by financiers – or that we already have a gay film, which I think is a quota which is incredibly enraging.
“I think people are used to a gay film that has to be Oscar-baity with an A-list star playing gay and that’s the worthy films that get made, if you want to make something that is a really mainstream, funny gay film. It’s very, very tricky because there are just not many of them.”
Via The Rewind
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