video by Frank Stender for Europanet - Invideo

Shooting Stars at EFP

Ireland is putting its money on the young and talented Flora Montgomery to represent the Emerald Isle as their ‘Shooting Star for 2003’. Audiences will remember Montgomery for her featured roles in Goldfish Memory directed in 2002 by Liz Gill, The Discovery of Heaven by Jeroen Krabbé (2001) and When Brendan Met Trudy by Kieron J.Walsh (2000), the film which won Montgomery, 28, a nomination for best actress by IFTA, the Irish Film and Television Academy.

"The film I'm here with is called Goldfish Memory which is a kind of light Irish romantic comedy. And before that I've always done quite serious, quite heavy pieces.
I'm really into working in pan-European films. I think the Scandinavians, the Germans, the French, the Spanish, they all work together a lot more than films involving the Irish and the English. Because there is a different feeling of film-making there. I think the Irish and the English can sometimes make a huge mistake by making films for the American market because they speak the same language.
And I'm desperately here trying to get back involved in the continental film-market because there are much more interesting films. They are character-based, they are not making it for a foreign market, they are making it for themselves.
So I like to see real people in real situations rather then this kind of American dream which seems to take over so many commercial films these days which is a real pity. 'Celtic saying/speech' - which actually means: 'Kiss my ass'".