Colm Bairéad’s unassuming Irish Language drama THE QUIET GIRL completely broke me more than any other film this year. In the 1980s (though it could really be set in any era) timid girl Cáit (Catherine Clinch) is fostered on her aunt Eibhlín’s (Carrie Crowley) farm over the summer as her exhausted and heavily pregnant mother (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh) convalesces. While living and leaning useful life skills on the farm, Cait begins to discover what a caring and nurturing family can really be. It’s a film of fragile, humanist moments and many a tranquil arable image that’ll stay with you. Uncle Seán’s (Andrew Bennett) invaluable words of wisdom, “Many’s the person missed the opportunity to say nothing and lost much because of it” should be taken to heart by everyone prone saying the quiet parts out loud. It’s an important film not just because it so fundamentally gets people who don’t quite fit in, but also in how it preserves cultural identity as one of the few prominent examples of Irish Gaelic film storytelling. SSP