Thirty-Five Aside

A dark comedy about the difficulty of fitting in in a new school.

Here is the amusing tale of the trials and tribulations of bespectacled schoolboy Philip Maguire (James Mahon), who struggles to settle into his new school. Harassed by rowdy classmates, never picked for football and without any friends, poor Philip stumbles from one drama to the next. With his comically combative father (Eamonn Hunt) in and out of prison, he turns to his temperamental mother (Maria Hayden) to save him.  

Despite the darkness of much of its subject matter, Thirty-Five Aside is full of visual delights and wry humour and deservedly scooped over forty international awards. 

This film is part of Children on Film. To see more from this collection, click here.

IFI recommendation: 12+