*Filming taking place in Kilrush. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
Production of a German film in Kilkee has been hailed as having an โunbelievableโ impact.
Odeon Fiction has completed shooting โPlanlos in Irelandโ which translates as โClueless in Irelandโ. Production staff were based at the Kilkee Bay Hotel for the duration of the shoot.
Directed by Florian Gรคrtner in West Clare, the comedy was commissioned by ARD subsidiary Degeto. Beatrice Meier wrote the screenplay based on an idea by Melanie Bukowski and Bianca Ritz.
A ninety minute film in length, it is produced by Odeon Fiction alongside Treehouse Media with Geraldine Voss and Edwina Forkin serving as producers.
Andrea Sawatzki and Gรถtz Schubert play the leading roles of two language students in an intensive English course in Ireland. Thorsten Merten, Claire O’Donovan, Sarah Hannemann, Ella Lee, Patrick Gรผldenberg and Axel Werner also star in other roles.
Connie is the main character in the movie. An executive secretary in Germany for many years, when she discovers that fluency in written and spoken English has suddenly become a key requirement at her office, she realises she needs a plan. To save her job, Connie leaves her incredulous husband, Dirk, and her pregnant daughter, Anja, at home and flies to Ireland to take an intensive language course. But she isnโt quite prepared for her new quirky landlady and teacher.
Praise was extended to Clareโs Arts Office for facilitating filming of the German production which followed in the footsteps of โCalm with Horsesโ in shooting a production in Kilkee, parts of the film were also recorded in Kilrush.
Speaking at the September meeting of Clare County Council, Cllr Cillian Murphy (FF) described the impact of the film as โunbelievableโ. He predicted that the value of the production to Kilkee and West Clare would be in the region of โฌ800,000.
Tax incentives from the Irish Government supported the production while leading officials within Clare County Council previously expressed confidence that it would boost more German visitors to the county in the coming years.