Barefoot lovely boy walks on wet rocks, shoot to the eggs of the bird, he collects the rocks and sometimes sings. The walls of the village are white and empty, and women with dark clothes are pinned to them. The people stand at the fixed points, and the only moving element of this space is the little boy who is whistling. The black and white images with photographic frames with static Mise-en-scène makes great subjective atmosphere, along with anti-narrative story and burning and endless singing of characters, the film looks like a dream.
Song of granite is a radical biographical film. Pat Collins, director of the film, is an Irish documentary maker that obviously ignores the insignificant details of his personal life to change his film to the sad , long and influential poem. The main character of the film, Joe, is apparently a famous Irish singer who has spent her childhood in a village in Ireland He learned to sing from his father and later decided to emigrate. The film focuses on three parts of childhood, middle age and aging Joe Hinney and by combining documentary photos that is borrowed from a documentary film, tries fellow the viewers. The first part is very attractive with the presence of a beautiful little boy and a strange Irish granite village. The middle part by choosing an actor with skeletal face and obvious nervousness not only distinct him of the early charming boy, but also to the real smily face of Joe Hinney. And because of changing the tone and style of the film, it is not interesting like the first part and in the latter part, the old Joe Hinney who has had a successful career life goes back to his childhood village to see the extraordinary scenes again.
All over the movie is full of songs; songs in a local Irish language in a particular solo style. Which is sing in long taking scenes in front of camera and it’s hard to get along with their harsh rhythm, especially for the audience who does not understand the language of the songs.
