Television’s waking dream

A man walks along a lonely road at night. He passes a deserted gas station, a herd of deer cross his path. A deer turns to watch the man, the man watches the deer. 

But is it a deer, or a memory of a deer; a recording of a deer from a different time and place?

This intriguing film, titled Eyes Wide, created by The Tenth Man and directed through Abstraction Pictures by Mayo-born filmmaker Lorcan Hynes, marks the broadcaster’s showcasing of original Irish entertainment. 

The man – played by Irish actor Dónall Ó Héalai – wanders mesmerised through a misty landscape, encountering ghostly visions of TV past and present. Is he part of the drama, or an observer?

Reminiscent of Magritte’s painting of a pipe bearing the caption, ‘this is not a pipe’ (it’s a painting of a pipe, obvs), the ad questions the nature of the reality of what we see, celebrating the suspension of disbelief we engage in when we enter the world of good telly. Epic stuff.