The latest addition to Dublin film folklore really is a road movie - an award-winning documentary that takes us from the start to the finish of one of the city's most famous thoroughfares via its surrounding neighbourhoods.
North Circular sizes up the landmarks, meets the people, and hears their stories and music along the way. It's an eye-opener, a time-capsule charmer, and a catalyst to get on the comfortable shoes with your own director's commentary playing in your head, wherever you are.
Hoofing it here alongside writer-director Luke McManus and his crew reminds us how much and how little areas can change, how communities evolve, and how there's a story to everyone we see. Or don't. Around or inside iconic places like the Phoenix Park, Grangegorman, folk hub The Cobblestone, Mountjoy Prison and Dalymount Park, lives play out and events are recounted.
If ever a film was a rallying cry against isolation, it's this one.
Filmed in beguiling black and white, North Circular doesn't dwell on one spot or person and is all the better for that. At a fleet-of-foot 86 minutes, it could be argued that the film is too short, but that duration is also how long it takes to complete the route that is at its heart.
A walk to remember.
North Circular is in cinemas now.
