New 2020 Digitally Remastered Edition
The Village is an intimate study of the slow-paced diurnal round of activity in Dunquin (native name Dún Chaoin), County Kerry, Ireland.
At the time of filming in 1967, the village consisted of only 180 people, most elderly and poor. This portrait was filmed at a time when acculturation by urban tourists was just beginning. The language, customs and subsistence techniques of Dunquin are presented without commentary or narration.
Throughout this vérité exploration, key village characters emerge: the postmistress, who dispenses sweets, gossip, and pensions; and the pub owner, who is also a landlord, grocer, and traditional yarn-spinner. Despite being isolated from the rest of the country and depleted by emigration, the society, traditions, and lives of Dunquin carry on.
Arguably the first ethnographic film to be completed in the style that would become known as Observational Cinema, The Village offers a marked contrast with Robert Flaherty's 1934 documentary Man of Aran, made in the same subculture.
"The heart of The Village... is the culture of the peasants today... remarkable how many of the folkways are captured in only seventy minutes." – John C. Messenger, American Anthropologist, 1972