SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER AT 1PM UGC SHAFTESBURY AVE SCREEN 1

Country UK Running Time 87 mins Format 35mm Director/S'play John Deery Producer Davina Stanley DoP Jason Lehel Cast Jonathan Forbes, Jason Barry, Brenda Fricker, Hugh Bonneville, John Lynch, Jim Norton, Sean McGinley, James Ellis, Hugh Quarshie Print Source Beyond Films E nick_kilcoyne@beyond.com.au

A can of worms is opened within the Catholic Church following two controversial incidents, the suicide of a parish priest, Father Sweeney, and the expulsion of Daniel, a young trainee priest from a nearby seminary on the grounds that he was open to the sexual advances of a male colleague.

Daniel returns to the family home where, fighting his own demons in the form of ex-love Sinead, he is torn between his desire to return to the seminary and his yearning to marry the woman he loves. Meanwhile a local journalist, David Foley, is convinced that Sweeney's death and Daniel's expulsion are linked. Father Francis, who was Father Sweeney's lover, helps to fuel Foley's suspicions of a cover up in the Church.

Desperate to clear his good name and be reinstated, Daniel agrees to talk to Foley. As the story gathers momentum, the Church closes ranks, and, utilising its sinister web of connection within Irish society, begins to fight back.

Conspiracy of Silence is a timely, controversial contemporary drama which examines with rigour and passion the sensitive issue of celibacy in the Catholic Church. BW

This is John Deery's debut as writer/director. Originally trained as an actor, Deery then worked as First AD to Hugh Hudson, Gerard de Thame and Stephen Poliakoff. Deery's previous credits as director include work for the Labour party (notably the launch film for the 1997 election campaign) and several major unions, as well as a documentary about Northern Ireland for a Japanese broadcaster.