In the documentary An Irish Atlantic Rainforest, Dublin sculptor Eoghan Daltun recounts his purchasing a 73-acre farm on the Beara Peninsula in southwest Ireland and turning it into a temperate rainforest simply by putting a gate around it and letting nature take its course. The area has remained so for over 15 years now, and Daltun remains its primary caretaker. Director Gary Lennon (who attended the SLIFF screening for a great Q&A) read Daltun’s book of the same title and was inspired to capture the area on film. The result is a beautiful meditation on man’s relationship with nature and the importance of ecology amidst climate crisis.
Daltun is quite a fascinating character in and of himself. The film feels like a kind of buddy picture between him and the land, as it teaches him (and us) more than he would have thought possible. As the terrain has remained untouched since 2009, a plethora of different plant and animal species have arrived there, most of them native to Ireland. Daltun initially removed the invasive rhododendron, but does not seem to have had to do much in that same vein since. Lennon’s shoot spanned at least an entire calendar year, as the film shows us all seasons of this ecological wonder.
The fauna of the area are mainly insects, amphibians, and small mammals. Lennon joked at the Q&A that Ireland’s toughest predator is the badger, but that actually seems to be true. One particular scene of interest to animal lovers will be a night-vision sequence in which we see a badger, along with the extremely rare pine marten. Also featured are bats, which reside in the area seasonally and seem to be of particular interest to Daltun.
Describing himself as “an enthusiast” and not a scientist, Daltun seems to know a great deal more about plant life and ecology through his experience than the vast majority of people on this planet. He says that his passion for ecology came partly from his impoverished upbringing and partly from his experience living in Italy, when he was most pouring his heart and soul into his sculpting work. Personally, I have always wished that I could sculpt out of marble or stone, and seeing Daltun’s work left me inspired yet again.
The rainforest is even more inspiring, however. Daltun argues that if we are to reverse the trends from climate change or even simply lessen their impact, we have to start thinking about letting the wild be wild. We spend so much time “taming” nature and bending it to our will. If adopted broadly, a headspace like Daltun’s could bend the arc of climate catastrophe backwards. His two sons don’t seem to share as much of his passion for the rainforest or the impact places like it could have, but his younger son does seem to be taking to it more and more. Lennon’s favorite scene in the film is the nighttime hike which Dalton and his son take through the rainforest, using UV lights to capture the bioluminescence of the fungi within. Exciting visuals like those — not to mention the rest of the film’s astonishing nature photography — should prove to be a fantastic introduction to the kinds of changes Daltun wishes to see in the world. | George Napper
An Irish Atlantic Rainforest was featured at the 2026 St. Louis International Film Festival. Further information about the festival, which runs Nov. 5-15, is available on the festival website.
