The Last of the High Kings

Institute History

  • 1994 Equinoxe Script Workshop

Description

The Last of the High Kings is a "Coming of Age" film based on the novel of the same name by Ferdia MacAnna.

It's the story of seventeen year old Frankie Griffin and the long confusing summer of 1977 which separates his final school exams from the start of the rest of his life. Frankie wants to be taken seriously by his weirdo family, his weirdo friends, and by the two girls that he's crazy about. A great source of aggravation for him is a difficult relationship with his eccentric mother. Ma is a sort of latterday warrior queen who insists that her children are in a direct line of descent from the High Kings of ancient Ireland.

In the course of the summer, Frankie has to come to terms with Ma, his sister Maggie who is a hippie, his brother Ray who is a child genius and author of cowboy novels, his brother Noelie who is a bit daft in the head and who carries a can of baked beans which he throws at anyone who isn't looking, the death of Elvis, the dreadful feeling that he has failed his exams, the unwelcome advances of his American cousin Erin and, of course, his first uncertain step into manhood which he's keen to take with the delectable Romy Casey.

Credits

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