Festival Predictions

2022 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Frank Berry’s Aisha

Published on November 22, 2021

Moving from a tragi-docudrama I Used to Live Here (2014) to what appears to be a very raw prison system film in Michael Inside (2017), for his fourth feature film Irish filmmaker Frank Berry turns to another rough portrait in an immigration drama with trouble ahead or… not far behind. Suicide, penal system, and now asylum seekers, Berry called his current sobering project “human connection in an inhumane system.” Filming on Aisha took place in Ireland back in April with future A-lister stars in Letitia Wright and Josh O’Connor set as the pair against all odds. The production has partners in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Gist: Formerly titled Provision, this is about a young Nigerian woman (Letitia Wright), as she seeks international protection in Ireland. Caught in limbo for years in Ireland’s immigration system, she develops a friendship with a former prisoner (Josh O’Connor) who she meets at one of the accommodation centres, but their friendship looks to be short lived as Aisha’s future in Ireland comes under threat.

Production Co./Producers: Tristan Orpen Lynch, Aoife O’Sullivan, Donna Eperon and Park Pictures’ Sam Bisbee.

Prediction: PREMIERES.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Cornerstone (domestic, international).

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).