Director Stephen Bradley's Noble is a sensitive and well-executed take on Irish humanitarian worker Christina Noble's life and is sure to resonate with audiences around the world.
It's an inspirational story - charting Christina's underprivileged upbringing in 1950s tenements in Dublin, to her journey in realising her dream of helping the street children of Vietnam.
The film has a non-chronological pattern which unveils Christina's story in flashbacks. A talented singer, as a young and feisty girl she busked to pull together enough money to feed her brothers and sisters as their charismatic but alcoholic father (Liam Cunningham) wasted away his meagre earnings.
Following the death of her mother, Christina and her siblings were shipped off to separate institutions, beginning years of hardship. Things don't get much better when she escapes to Birmingham with her best friend (Ruth Negga), meeting and marrying an abusive Greek chip shop owner, with whom she has children.
These difficult times are interspersed with Christina's arrival in Ho Chi Minh City. She is there with no strict sense of direction; all she knows is that she wants to somehow help the homeless children in Vietnam, with whom she feels a huge sense of empathy.
Christina sets about trying to raise capital to set up a facility to care for these children but finds an utter lack of support from both local businesses, the police and even the immigration authorities who want to deport her if she isn't successful within three months.
Her battle to succeed against the odds is wonderfully captured, with her strong-will, perseverance and sense of humour taking centre stage.
Noble hinges on Deirdre O'Kane's subtle but affecting performance, and she has the comic timing to do Christina's wit and charm justice.
Sarah McIntyre
