I love this movie so much

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Through highly composed scenes of everyday objects, selected, arranged and lighted to express something beyond their mundane physical reality, photographer Perry Ogden pursuit his desire to raise awareness in an objective way. But what happens when a messy room is rearranged through strict scenography to look even messier? What happens to reality when it is enforced through manipulation? Is it beyond realism or just fictional realism? And does this really lead to an objective presentation of a photographers subject rather than just the photographer's subjective composition on objects? Like in a Jeff Wall image, the perfect detailing and significance of everything leaves the observer skeptic of the authenticity of the portrayed reality. Whit an intention to create such suspension, playing on the observer's expectations and presuppositions, this simulated realism can be a powerful tool. As for Pavee Lackeen, I personally feel it lacks a proper stand to have an appeal within the genre of Cinéma vérité while to much control lies within the reach of the director to attain any atmosphere of documentary realism. To turn an old phrase, maybe a thousand words are worth less than an image?

A slice of life can be great cinema, because it can capture something that seems intrinsically real and tangible. Pavee Lackeen is funny and strikes me as realistic.The film does not need an insertion of dramatic structure because I think it would then become contrived and false. The structure of the film is loose, but this definitely works. The focus isn't compromised, and as an audience we are compelled not by manufactured structure but by the rawness and reality of 'The Traveller Girl's' life (shaky, unsteady, boring, sad). Winnie and her family shine, a cracker of a film.

I found the film interesting, but a one sided insight into the life of Irish travellers. It seemed to tick the stereotypical view that a lot of people who are not informed about travellers would think. Poor, dirty, ill-educated, drunk, thieves.In reality travellers are like any other race there are the rich and the poor the good and the bad. This film seemed to be a one sided view.At the screening Perry Ogden said that the young girl Winnie asked him to take out the petrol sniffing scene and he had convinced her and her mother to keep it in. Winnie had been worried that the scene would portray her as a bad person and that no one would want to marry her. For a 10 year old girl to speak out to a director I think was very brave and he manipulated her to keep the scene in for his own "artistic licence".Also the father figure in the film is not around, the opening scene sees the mother collecting money from a pawned wedding ring. perry Ogden said he left this open to interpretation that perhaps the father was dead or had "gone off". In traveller culture the fathers/husbands do not just "go off" (the reality was that the father did not want to be in the film) as there are extremely high values placed on family.Overall the film was interesting but it concerns me that the film was quite negative about travellers in Ireland and that the director changed aspects of reality to add more drama to the film which was supposed to be a realistic insight.

I worried that Pavee Lakeen would fall at one of two hurdles; either do-gooder worthiness in covering the subject matter, or the hokey staged quality often associated with both 'docu-dramas' and use of non-professional actors. No need to concern yourself on either count. The fiction/documentary thing works to the degree that you forget you're looking at something that isn't pure documentary. The professional actors don't stick out like sore thumbs, and the feel of the entire film is very naturalistic.In avoiding the urge to moralise, and investing so much time and effort in capturing the essence of the Maughan's day-to-day life, Perry Ogden has produced a real gem of a film. He managed to produce something that takes the qualities of his social reportage photography work, and extends it naturally into cinema. For a first feature, it exhibits nothing of the excessive tinkering you sometimes find. Ogden was blessed with a photogenic lead, but he avoids leaning on the aesthetic crutch he might have done.The film isn't big on narrative, and don't go expecting plot resolutions, or arcs, or whatever. It's a great intimate snapshot of a girl's life, a family, and (unexpectedly) a city, in this moment in time. The 'issues' that the film touches on are handled with a light touch, and all the better for it.One warning; I don't know if the film is shown with subtitles outside Ireland, but the accent/dialect of the Travellers will challenge some.