New film will chart the origins of that pivotal decision and follows developments through the peak of the boom to the beginning of the bust.
New Irish film THE GUARANTEE will hit cinemas on October 30th with a World Premiere Live Event Screening hosted by Today FM’s Matt Cooper. The film based on Colin Murphy’s stage play Guaranteed! recreates the drama surrounding the most significant political decision in modern Irish history when the Irish government decided to guarantee the entire domestic banking system. That decision was made by a handful of men in a room in the middle of the night. By the time the costs can be fully counted, in another 30 years or so, it will have cost over €60 billion – the most expensive bank rescue in history. THE GUARANTEE tells the story of that night, and what led to it. Starting four years earlier, it charts the peak of the boom and the beginning of the bust.
The drama shows the key players in the establishment as they struggle to come to terms with the unfolding consequences of their earlier failure to rein in the property market as the global banking system buckled and the Irish economy faced collapse.
It is a gripping drama of classical proportions, in which the tragic hero is Ireland. Like Cinderella, Ireland was the poor sister of Europe, who finally got a chance to go to the ball. But when she got there, she forgot herself; she stayed past midnight, and suddenly all her riches returned to rags.
At the heart of the drama are the figures of the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and the Central Banker, Officials in the Department of Finance and the heads of the key banks. Other characters come and go, but these are the key decision makers. The film moves quickly between locations, moving ever quicker towards the night itself, as it charts the end of the boom and the onset of the global financial crisis.
Love/Hate actor Peter Coonan and Gary Lydon star as Anglo Irish Bank Chief Executive David Drumm and Brian Cowen respectively, with David Murray, Morgan C. Jones and Orla Fitzgerald also starring as Brian Lenihan, Sean Fitzpatrick and Kate Walsh.
The brand new poster (above) was designed by Annie Atkins who was the lead graphic designer for Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel.