How it’s New York: Film opened in New York and other cities on May 8th.
How it’s Irish: Story of Irish activist and philanthropist Christina Noble who helped save over a million of Vietnam’s street children.
The new film from Writer/Director Stephen Bradley, starring his wife actress/comedienne Dierdre O’Kane, NOBLE is a heartwarming and dramatic look at the amazing life of Christina Noble.
Opening today in theatres across the US, NOBLE starts out with Christina as a young girl and follows her incredible journey through her troubled youth in Dublin, to finding her calling in saving children in similar circumstances half a world away.
Writer/Director Stephen Bradley has crafted an intimate and gut-wrenching screenplay that draws upon the drama of Christina’s circumstances, peppered with the humor and music that helped her maintain her sanity.
O’Kane (known for “Rory O’Shea Was Here” and “Intermission”) stars as the adult Christina and was in large part responsible for bringing this story to the screen. I sat down with Bradley to talk about the project and his excitement and commitment to telling Christina’s story in a real and truthful way.
The grit of Christina’s life in Dublin and England can’t even come close to what she witnesses when she arrives in steamy Ho Chi Minh City. She finds children who have been abandoned by family and country and are living like wild animals on the outskirts of town or in derelict buildings.
Using her own money, she finds ways to woo the bureaucrats and befriend the children and the local care workers who have given up on the government coming to their aid. Undeterred, Christina fights for a better life for these children, and still continues to do so. Even the surly desk clerk in her hotel eventually melts under Christina’s charms.
O’Kane is brilliant, funny and fierce as the adult Christina and Gloria Cramer Curtis is enchanting as the young Christina.
Liam Cunningham (“Game of Thrones”, “The Wind That Shakes The Barley”) is powerful as Christina’s ne’er-do-well alcoholic father, who never fails to disappoint her. Cameos by Pauline McLynn (“Father Ted”) as a domineering Mother Superior and Brendan Coyle (“Downton Abbey”) as a Dublin oil entrepreneur whom Christina turns to for financial backing, are particularly wonderful.
Though not always happy, the power of the message in this piece that nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it and believe. Like Christina having conversations with God and asking for His help, one would think it would be hard for Him to say no!
You can find out below where NOBLE is playing near you. So, get out and see it and tell all your friends!
Click here for more information on the Christina Noble Foundation.
