Strange Occurrences in a Small Irish Village, the new film from the One Million Dubliners team about the Knock Shrine in Co Mayo, opens later this month and if the mix of faith, heart and humour in the trailer is anything to go by, it's another homegrown must-see.
The documentary looks at Knock and the history of its Marian Shrine through the lives of locals and visitors. Over one million people make the pilgrimage to the site each year.
Directed by Aoife Kelleher, who was also behind the lens for Glasnevin Cemetery documentary One Million Dubliners, the film takes its title from press coverage of the August 1879 apparition reported at Knock.
"It's very important that every generation interrogate the stories that are passed down to them, and look at them afresh, and decide for themselves whether they should be embraced and preserved or discarded," said Kelleher.
"The story itself is so fantastic that you completely want to get to the bottom of it. You want to know what it is that they saw and how it was spoken about at the time."
Kelleher has described her film as "a documentary about religion rather than a religious documentary".
"At the very heart of Knock is this story about an apparition, but in making the documentary we wanted to look at the apparition in its social context and its historical context," she added.
Strange Occurrences in a Small Irish Village is in cinemas from Friday August 26.
