Interview with director Mark O'Connor: Historical Movies, Amongst the Wolves and Barry Keoghan

Amongst the Wolves releases in Ireland and the UK on 2nd May 2025!We're joined by acclaimed director Mark O'Connor - writer and director of Between the Canals and Cardboard Gangsters - shortly before the release of his new film Amongst the Wolves.We go through Mark's favourite historical movies, his process and experience as a writer director and some of the possible future projects he's working on, including a historical epic about the 1798 Irish uprising and a movie about the Dubliners.Plus he tells us how he found a young Barry Keoghan and gave him his first acting opportunity.We also touch on the world of guerilla film-making, the role of realism and morality in Mark's movies and we talk through his upcoming revenge drama Amongst the Wolves.We’d love to hear from you so drop us a line at [email protected] or leave us a comment on our YouTube Channel if you’d like to get in touch!00:00 El Vino did Flow00:27 Intro01:59 Mark's favourite Historical Movies05:15 Screen writing and directing10:39 1798 film project13:09 Realism in Mark's movies and in historical films15:37 Do directors make their best movies first?18:04 The Dubliners film project - how the Dubliners nearly died!20:09 How the movie industry is changing - cinemas close, AI expanding24:59 Movie budgets and how to make a movie on a shoestring29:20 How Mark 'discovered' Barry Keoghan34:02 Bryce praises The New World34:32 Ros obsesses over Barry Lyndon35:04 Amongst the Wolves - Mark's new film40:48 Outro