John Michael McDonagh wrote and directed The Guard which was nominated for a BAFTA, and replaced this film as the most successful independent Irish film of all time?
John Michael McDonagh John Michael McDonagh is a screenwriter and film director with British and Irish nationality. He wrote and directed "The Guard" (2011) and "Calvary" (2014), both films starring Brendan Gleeson, receiving a BAFTA Award nomination for the former. He was born in London in 1967. He is the older brother of playwright and filmmaker Martin McDonagh.
This Is the Sea (film) This Is the Sea is an Irish film, released in 1997, directed and written by Mary McGuckian and produced by Michael Garland. It is a romance film, focusing on the relationship between the character Hazel Stokes, played by Samantha Morton, and Malachy McAliskey, played by Ross McDade. The two lovers live in Northern Ireland. Stokes is a Protestant, while McAliskey is Catholic. Their relationship is complicated by the spying of Stokes' brother Jef, played by Marc O'Shea, and by the attempts of Rohan, played by Gabriel Byrne, to recruit McAliskey into the Republican movement. The film also stars Richard Harris as Old Man Jacobs, an ally to the couple.