Frank Sweeney’s new film, Go Ye Afar, follows the journey of an Irish-Nigerian taxi driver on a miraculous voyage through the streets of Dublin and Calabar. Using a range of techniques and sources, from reenacted interviews and archival footage to rear-projection and Nollywood-inspired special effects, a series of characters are transported through interconnected sites in Ireland and Nigeria.
The taxi becomes a vehicle, literally and metaphorically, which uncovers ways that media strategies employed by missionaries shaped the Irish understanding of the Nigerian-Biafran War, leading to the founding of major NGOs, and the lasting effects of these movements on contemporary systems of free trade and immigration. Through these journeys, the film examines the entangled legacies of colonialism, Christianity and charity that shape cultures across Ireland and Nigeria.
The script, co-written by Beulah Ezeugo of the Éireann and I archive and Frank Sweeney, is grounded in oral history interviews with Irish-Nigerian taxi drivers and missionaries who lived and worked in both countries.
Sweeney’s films explore how broadcast media has been instrumentalised to impose or restrict certain viewpoints, particularly in relation to state ideologies such as religion and cultural identity. Celebrating the visual slippages of analogue recording and transmission, his work reveals the potential for a broader range of narrative truths and histories. The film’s installation in Temple Bar Gallery + Studios subtly reflects the shared transitory experience, and the perception of the world in motion.
Sweeney’s previous film, Few Can See (2024), was winner of the Tiger Short Award at International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2024, and received a Special Mention at FILMADRID, 2024. It was originally commissioned by and screened at EVA International, Limerick, in 2023.
Go Ye Afar will be installed and screened at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, from Friday October 3rd to Sunday November 23rd 2025. Film screening begins every thirty minutes on the half hour. The production of Go Ye Afar is supported by an Arts Council Film Project Award.
To coincide with Dublin Gallery Weekend, Frank Sweeney will discuss his new film at TBG+S on Friday November 7th between 5 and 6pm. The talk will be followed by a brief Q&A. Following the talk, the Gallery will open late and attendees will have the opportunity to watch the film in full (approx. 30 mins).
