THE BRIGHT SIDE 

Ireland

Director: Ruth Meehan

Cast: Gemma-Leah Devereux, Siobhan Cullen, Karen Egan, Barbara Brennan, Derbhle Crotty, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor

Genre: Comedy Drama

100 minutes:  English

When life lets her down, only love can lift her up!  

World-weary stand-up comedian Kate McLoughlin thinks her life has no meaning.  When she’s diagnosed with breast cancer, even the universe seems to agree with her morbid prayers. To placate her family, she begrudgingly agrees to undergo chemotherapy.  Armed with staggering levels of cynicism and a plethora of blackly comic jokes, her exit strategies are constantly upended when she encounters four powerful women whose unsolicited friendships challenge her, soften her and ultimately blow open her shut-down heart.

The Bright Side premiered at the Cork International Film Festival where it walked away with the Audience Award.  Director Ruth Meehan: ´This film is inspired by a combination of Anne Gildea’s honest and irreverent account of her journey through cancer and my own personal experience of the surprisingly life-enhancing cathartic power of loss and grief.  It is dedicated to warrior women everywhere!’  

The Bright Side is part of CANSA’s Breast Cancer Awareness campaign taking place during October. See https://cansa.org.za/womens-health/ for more information. Please consider making a donation to CANSA via the link https://www.givengain.com/d/cc/9344

Ruth Meehan’s directorial debut offers black humour, cynicism and trust in the power of friendship and love in a perfect blend only found in Irish films. Letterboxd

A moving and uplifting story of courage, rich in feel-good vibes.  Cineuropa

A brave and ultimately rewarding approach to the subject of cancer. The film plays like a merrier version of One Flew over the Cuckoo´s Nest. Donald Clarke, Irish Times

An insane amount of heart, great character writing, big tear-jerking moments, and even bigger laughs. Dank 99