Irish Tour de France drama The Racer will receive World Premiere at SXSW in March

Posted: 16th January 2020

Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland is delighted to congratulate the creative team behind cycling drama The Racer, which will travel to Austin, Texas this March to receive its World Premiere at the SXSW Film Festival 2020. In Official Selection for the Narrative Spotlight, Kieron J. Walsh’s (Jump, Finding Joy, When Brendan Met Trudy) feature is a gripping drama about the Irish opening to the Tour de France in 1998.

Seasoned ‘super-domestique’, Dom Chabol, experiences the most dramatic three days of his life as he faces the end of his time with his team, the end of his career, and even the end of his life, at the opening Irish stages of the notorious 1998 Tour de France, known as the ‘Tour du Dopage’. Hope comes in the form of dynamic young Irish medical graduate, Lynn Brennan - or does it?

Written by Ciaran Cassidy and Kieron J. Walsh, The Racer was shot in Ireland and Luxembourg with Blinder Films’ Katie Holly and Yvonne Donohoe producing along with Calach Films' Jesus Gonzalez and Caviar's Robin Kerremans and Dimitri Verbeeck.

The film is supported by Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, Film Fund Luxembourg, Eurimages, Screen Flanders, the BAI Sound & Vision Fund and RTE. Kinepolis Film Distribution (KFD) will release the film in the Benelux territory.

The film’s selection marks further Screen Ireland-supported project success at SXSW, which saw Irish supernatural comedy Extra Ordinary in Official Selection as part of its 2019 line-up. The SXSW Film Festival is part of an annual conglomerate of film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. The film festival celebrates raw innovation and emerging talent both behind and in front of the camera.