Fruit 15

Twenty-three-year-old Una (Gabrielle Reidy) is pregnant – perhaps by immaculate conception?

This independent young woman zips about on her motorbike, cheerfully visiting her mammy and younger siblings in the country before returning to her busy social life in Dublin, preoccupied with her pregnancy and determined to find a father for her unborn child. She and her future child, Regina, muse fancifully in voiceover about her pregnancy, the Virgin Mary (“the first surrogate mother”) and the concept of immaculate conception.

Fruit 15 is experimental in form and in concept as it playfully alludes to weighty themes relating to women’s experience in 1990’s Ireland and to the changing status of the Catholic Church. Claire Lynch showed remarkable promise with this, her DLCAD graduate film. The film provides great insight for those who may not have lived through this period – and a vivid reminder for those who did.

Fruit 15 won many awards including the Fuji Award for most Promising Direction. Claire Lynch tragically died in a house fire while attending the Cork Film Festival 1993 where the film was screened.

This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women. To view more from the collection click here.