The Shamrocks
Screenplay (Drama)
Synopsis:
By day The Shamrocks work as nannies for affluent New Yorkers. At night and
on free weekends, these unlikely champions dominate the local women's soccer
league. As notorious for their time spent in pubs as for their time spent on the
soccer pitch, they're the scourge of the league in just about every way.
Set in New York City in the not too distant past of the 1990s when fertility drugs
and double-wide jogging strollers are more conspicuous, less ubiquitous,
sticky payphones can still be found on city streets, and smoking is allowed in
NYC bars. It’s also the Celtic Tiger years in Ireland, with a bustling economy but
one that hasn’t trickled down to all of its citizens. Working-class (but talented
soccer player), Helen Farrell immigrates to the U.S. to join her older sister Bryn.
But Helen has much different expectations of her new home than her sister, who
came over in the 1980s and is content to be an ace-nanny and captain of her
inner-city soccer team.
Following sisters Bryne and Helen, and newly pregnant unwed mother, Jocelyn,
this female-centered film delves into subcultures around New York City through
the teams The Shamrocks engage on the field as well as the complex
relationships the players have with the families who employ them.
The women must confront their precarious relationships with one another, with
the society in which they are aliens, with sexuality and love, friendship and
jealousy, and the pain that comes from not always winning.
The film explores the hidden (and not so hidden) class system in New York, and
lets the soccer field be the great equalizer. A place where women from all walks
of city life play; not for endorsements or external glory (there isn’t much), but for
the love of the game, and a place to succeed away from their usual lives.
Developed with the support of the Sundance Institute.
