Mermaids. Migrants. And the Far Right.

Ahead of the film’s release later this year, here is a first look trailer for filmmaker Patrick Ireland’s Ill Fares The Land, a contemporary fantasy-drama that explores the ‘migrant crisis’ and the rise of the far-right in a small seaside town in England.

Starring in the film are Noah Silvertone, Ruaridh Aldington, Eddie Chamberlin and Ruairi Conaghan.

In the film, a young boy finds a mermaid washed up on the shores of his seaside home while his older brother is swept up in the rising tide of far-right nationalism.

Centered around the relationship between two brothers, the film blends together gritty drama with folk fantasy and political commentary.

Says Ireland, “The Mermaid in the film acts as a metaphor for the asylum seekers currently making the perilous journey across the English channel to reach the shores of Britain, only to be met by hatred and violence from large swathes of the native population. Fuelled by a right-wing media and collapsing living standards, these people have become lost to fascism – and alienated from their own humanity.

But what lies at the heart of the film is the commonality between asylum seekers and the working-class communities that have turned against them. Pain.”

Watch the trailer for Ill Fares The Land.