After only five days in cinemas, the acclaimed Irish drama Rialto will be available online from Friday as the team behind the Tom Vaughan-Lawlor-starring film try to find the widest audience possible in the wake of the country moving to Level 3. 

With cinemas closed under Covid-19 regulations, Rialto will be available on the streaming services IFI@Home, Volta, Barbican Cinema on Demand and Curzon Home Cinema from Friday. It was released in cinemas around the country last Friday, and it had been hoped that a Dublin release would take place when the original Level 3 restrictions were due to be lifted.

Rialto tells the story of Colm (Vaughan-Lawlor), a family man who has worked all his life on the Dublin docks. The recent death of his alcoholic father and a takeover at his place of work leads the 46-year-old to question everything that anchors him in the world. 

Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Colm in Rialto - "It's been one of the most rewarding jobs of my career"

Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment last week, Love/Hate star Vaughan-Lawlor said he knew he had to make the film after reading the first scene.

"I suppose a lot of characters I've played before are kind of high-energy, intense, high-tempo characters," he continued.

"I've played a lot of those. Whereas Colm's the opposite: he's a man who's very low-key in everything he does, or has been very low-key, so his tempo is slower. He's more aware, he's hidden and he's damaged. He's raw on the inside. 

"It's about a man who hates his body and hates himself and feels so physically self-conscious that he's concealing himself"

"Practically, because I was in every scene of the film, I was on set all day, every day, which is a joy because the material was so strong and the scenes were so brilliant and the cast around me was so incredible. But it does... By the end I was ready for a holiday!

"It was good to get to the end and then be able to kind of leave it behind me. But having said that, it's an opportunity I wouldn't have given up for the world. It's been one of the most rewarding jobs of my career."
 

Watch RTÉ's Arts & Media Correspondent Sinéad Crowley's report on how cinemas are reeling because of the pandemic.

We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

Click here for more movie news.