Lost & Found is made up of seven stories that orbit around the lost and found office of an Irish train station. They also connect to Daniel Morris (played by writer/director Liam Ó Mochain), a young man with an easy-going nature who’s working at the train station and sometimes at Podge’s unpopular pub at the edge of town. Some of the stories are darkly humorous, some poignant, and some outrageously funny, but all share something about small-town life in Ireland.
Daniel and Joe (Brendan Conroy) are fast and loose with the items turned in at the lost & found, including the baby someone drops off one day. Podge (Donncha Crowley) discovers what it takes to turn a profit at the pub, while Silé (Aoibhin Garrihy) and Gabriel (Seamus Hughes) find the worst possible way to get engaged and plan a wedding. Norma Sheahan plays a ticket taker on the train whose luck causes her to have a weak bladder at an incredibly fortunate moment.
There’s a subtle charm to the Irish cynicism, with a warmth under it all that belies the sometimes harsh reactions.
“…seven stories that orbit around the lost and found office of an Irish train station…“
Galway based director Ó Mochain writes about making this film in a July 2018 RTE article: “All the stories in Lost & Found are inspired by true stories that either happened to me, someone I know, or I was told about. The segments share a theme of something lost or found and have characters that come in and out of each other’s lives. We filmed the seven segments in short spurts, three-four days annually from 2011 to 2016, filming mainly in Dublin and Laois”
Lost & Found won the Best Foreign Film award at its first international film festival in Tucson Arizona, and has been well received at other festivals. It will be released in North American theaters March 22nd. The Irish humor and setting make for a lovely time with the film as we get a droll glimpse of daily life in Ireland, and things that are lost and found again.
Lost & Found (2018) Written and directed by Liam Ó Mochain. Starring Liam Ó Mochain, Norma Sheahan, Brendan Conroy.
8 out of 10
