Float Like a Butterfly

An impressively passionate recreation of a now-distant era. Above all it is a triumph for Doupe, who scraps and bawls and triumphs like a star from the golden age.

A gloriously unruly collision of vivid romanticism and tough, unsentimental truths about the hardscrabble lives and casual discrimination faced by Irish travellers.

Strongly evokes a rural world stuck mid-way between restrictive age-old traditions and budding modern tendencies.

You sincerely want to believe that the film will tackle its subject matter with heart and grit -- but hopes are dashed by the opening five minutes, a disastrous melange of trauma and broken dreams that is handled about as subtly as a mean uppercut.

It is a thoughtful assessment of gender relations, coming of age and a search for identity.

Touching on themes of classism, racism and sexism, Float Like A Butterfly shows the multiple, interconnecting ways that bigotry can box people in, leaving them no choice but to fight their way out.

There are the bones of a decent film here but the script is clichéd, while the over-employed score mostly spoils it.

This is a grim but lyrical film, a stern rebuke to those who like to talk about the good old days.

Float Like a Butterfly has a rare fervour, whereby it emotes both gut-wrenching sadness and a fighting spirit in one fell swoop.

Float Like a Butterfly may not carry the sting of a bee, but it is worth stepping in the ring with.