CHILDREN LEARN WHAT they live is an iconic poem written by Dorothy Law Nolte in the 1950s. With catching rhythms of repetition, it presents the different values that can shape a child. But one not taken into consideration is that of utter emotional abandonment. In the Irish film, The Quiet Girl, director Colm Bairéad explores the scenario with perspicacity and empathy. Cait (Catherine Clinch) is a nine-year-old in an indigent family, who is simply in the way. Her mam is expecting another, and there are many snotty, loud, crying children in various stages of toddlerhood and childhood constantly in and out of the frame. A solution must be found. This tender and fine work features on this year’s European Film Festival, online for free and at cinemas in Johannesburg and Cape Town, from 10 until 20 October 2024.

And find a solution, they do: by way of Cait’s mother’s relations. A couple, Eibhlín (Carrie Crowley) and Seán (Andrew Bennett), who are strangers to the child, and live a three-hour drive away. They operate with quietness, but also with something broken and secret between them. A lack. A cupboard filled with the new clothes of a small boy. Unworn. In a sense, there’s the kind of wariness between both parties in this film that you experience with a new puppy who comes of a place of scariness. The grown-ups are frightened to be too boisterous or demanding in case the newcomer will shatter into a million pieces. Or in case they, themselves, will.

It’s a very basic story told with powerful directorial capabilities and a very strong sense of entrances and exits in the filming of the internal architecture, which speaks in itself about new frontiers and all their associated metaphors, with succinctness and editorial wisdom. But the pinnacle of artistic success in this work is the casting of Cait. Clinch debuts in The Quiet Girl and was just 11 at the time of the making of the film. She demonstrates a sense of thoughtful quietude and internal dialogue that is well beyond her years, lending the character a gravitas that is at once demure and humble yet never overplayed.

It’s a beautiful film. Not a massive statement of a seismic nature, but a poem about a child who is tougher than the circumstances presented to her. And she’s tough enough to soften the façade and ease the emotional weight carried by two very bereft grown-ups. Bring tissues.

• The Quiet Girl is directed by Colm Bairéad and features a cast headed by Rian Bairéad, Andrew Bennett, Carolyn Bracken, Eabha Ni Chonaola, Kate Nic Chonaonaigh, Catherine Clinch, Carrie Crowley, Roise Crowley, Neans Nic Dhonnca, Tara Faughnan, Grainne Gillespie, Isabella Hamilton, Aine Hayden, Jessica Joannides, Norette Leahy, Alishia McAniff, Killian McAniff, Breandán Ó Duinnshleibhe, Pádraig Ó Se, Sean Ó Súilleabháin, Martin Oakes, Marion O’Dwyer, Elaine O’Hara, Aidan O’Sullivan, Bernadette O’Sullivan, Michael Patric, Joan Sheehy, Nicole Stenson Browne, Elena Walshe Gleeson and Zach Wymyslo. Written by Colm Bairéad based on the 2010 story ‘Foster’ by Claire Keegan, it is produced by Cleona Ní Chrualaoí and features creative input by Stephen Rennicks (music), Kate McCullough (cinematography), John Murphy (editing), Emma Lowney (production design) and Louise Stanton (costumes). In Irish with English subtitles, it is part of the 11^th European Film Festival South Africa, screening at The Zone in Rosebank Johannesburg, The Labia in Cape Town and online, 10-20 October 2024.