FARMERS?!
2024 · 13m · Ireland
Directed by Freddie Leyden
Genres: dark comedy, drama, surrealism
Tones: darkly comic, melancholic, surreal
After an Irish farmer dies by suicide, his friends and neighbors struggle to express their grief until the man's ghost appears at his estate auction, releasing repressed emotions in unexpected and visceral ways.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Repressed Irish masculinity + ghost + screaming at an estate auction — this is the anti-pastoral short film that defies every cliche about sad farmers while actually being about sad farmers.
Leyden uses the ghost not as horror but as emotional permission slip — supernatural-as-permission for Irish men to grieve. The conceit is structurally elegant, and the Vimeo Staff Pick placement is well-earned.
Vimeo Staff Picks channel pickup — Leyden using the supernatural appearance as emotional permission slip for Irish farmer grief that can't otherwise speak. Fifteen minutes; that's a real psychological idea for the ghost convention.
Festivals
- Cork International Film Festival 2024, Best Director
- Belfast International Film Festival 2024, LUMI Award