Barbara .Burbank

This is a very fascinating film, which looks at the human lust for power and the evil that results. Even though Abigale is a low class toilet cleaner on the luxury yacht she works on, she becomes the most powerful person on the island, where she and a group of rich people are stranded. She alone knows how to survive – – find a fish in the ocean to feed everyone, build a fire, stave off starvation and with her skills turn the social order upside down as the rich helpless people don’t know how to do anything and become beholden to her. However, the film shows how at the most basic level, power ultimately turns to evil whether one is wealthy or poor – – it is the human condition and the basis for evil in the world. There was no reason to kill the donkey other than for the killer to show his macho – – but it comes to nothing, since they have no way of butchering the animal, and turning it into food – – innocence is destroyed by human’s warped ego and lust for power.

Beautifully filmed and acted, reminiscent of Irish folktales, this intriguing film is both comic and tragic. The abrupt end of a friendship between two men living on an island off the coast of Ireland reflects the tragic civil war taking place on the mainland — two warring sides that have no middle ground for understanding each other.