BOXOFFICE: With the Irish film industry in ascendance, are audiences seeing a different Irish identity portrayed onscreen?

GABRIEL BYRNE: There are two issues here. Number one is that a lot of the perceptions that we have about either cultures or other countries come from movies, and a great deal of what people imagine Ireland to be, or what they would like it to be, comes from the kind of movies they've seen about Ireland. Up until five or six years ago, movies about Ireland were made by British and American film companies, usually using Ireland as a backdrop, with very little real attempt to understand the kind of country that it was. They dealt with issues in a very superficial way. The American or British cinematic view of Ireland tended to depict stereotypes and cliches, with the result that a lot of people, when they think of Ireland, they think of the Ireland of "The Quiet Man," the Ireland of Carol Reed in "Odd Man Out." Second, what's beginning to happen now is that we are getting to tell our own stories from our viewpoint. That's a very exciting and interesting reversal. But there is always danger, of course, that when you're making films you're making them for a particular market. And another question comes out of that - is it possible to tell your own story and to be commercially successful?

BOXOFFICE: And your answer?

BYRNE: I think it's more important to tell the story than it is to be concerned about the commercial acceptability or viability of that story. Of course, every producer in the world would say that's complete nonsense. It's always been a difficult area - to retain integrity and truth in the kinds of movies that you make, and also to make sure that enough people see them to make them worthwhile and then to ensure that those kinds of movies continue to be made. I know it's ridiculous to be talking like this to a magazine that's called BOXOFFICE, but perhaps this is precisely the place to bring up this issue. I'm not against big commercial movies. I'm not - I think there's a place for that. But there's also a place for movies that are about issues that are real and that are thought-provoking and that actually have the power to change the way people see the world.

BOXOFFICE: In that light, how would you compare the voice of more recent Hollywood movies about Ireland, like "Patriot Games" and "Far and Away," with that of two new Irish-made films in which you're involved, "This Is the Sea" and "Last of the High Kings"?

BYRNE: "Patriot Games" in my opinion was a travesty of a movie, simply because it reduced the tragedy, the stuggle in the north of Ireland, to a series of cliches, idiotic cliches, and used it to make a movie that was really dishonest. "Far and Away" was dishonest in another way, not intentionally dishonest, but it was actually a ludicrous view of Ireland. On the one hand, I think Irish people laughed at it and thought, "Can they be serious?" - and at the same time were angry that $70 million was spent on the propagation of that kind of untruth. And so we were caught, like other countries have been caught, with this false depiction of Ireland's history and Ireland's past. "This Is the Sea" is a small Irish movie written and directed by a young Irish woman, Mary McGuckian, that looks at the Belfast of today, with the backdrop of Ireland seen against a love story between two young people. To me it's authentic voice because it is trying to tell something of the truth. "Last of the High Kings" is about a young man coming to terms with his adulthood in Dublin in the '70's. Again, it's written by an Irish novelist, directed by an Irish director and produced by an Irish producer.

BOXOFFICE: To me, your "Into the West" [1993] is a case study of Irish film's particularity yet universality. With its Celtic mythology and Traveller characters, it seems very Gaelic, but its humanity could be appreciated by anyone anywhere.

BYRNE: I would say that any film, whether it comes from Denmark or Ireland or America or England, if it's to be successful as a piece of work it has to be universal. You have to be able to sit down in Omaha, Nebraska, or in Dublin, Ireland, and identify with the characters and the story. If a movie is truthful, it's universal, because we all share the same hopes and dreams and fears.

BOXOFFICE: Do you feel that Irish cinema as this century closes is going through its own Celtic Twilight, the way Irish literature did as the century opened?

BYRNE: I'm not as optimistic as some people. When you really examine the Irish film industry, to be absolutely honest about it, it boils down to about four people. That doesn't make an incredible artistic movement like the Celtic Twilight of Yeats and O'Casey and Synge. I think that the future of Irish film lies with the young people who are coming up now, young Irish writers and directors, and their being allowed to express themselves cinematically.

- Kim Williamson