Director Laura McGann, 2017 (87m)

Energising, unflinching and poignant, Revolutions is Laura McGann’s trenchant portrait of Ireland’s efforts to enter the first ever Roller Derby World Cup and the ensuing personal fallout. Set against the backdrop of recession and post-recession Ireland and filmed over five years, Revolutions follows hungry players from Dublin and Cork as they attempt to fashion an international team despite their differences and own personal travails. The sporting scenes are filmed with a brutal vigour while insights into the women’s personal lives reveal the pain and uncertainty wrought by a recession from which many in Ireland still struggle to recover. Or, as Niall Murphy put it, writing for Scannain: “the fast paced & aggressive derby world becomes a haven for determined, pissed-off women in a crippled country.”