First Winter

1981
27m

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

165

YOUR RATING

Drama History Short

With the father away, an Irish immigrant family struggle to survive their first winter in the Canadian wild.With the father away, an Irish immigrant family struggle to survive their first winter in the Canadian wild.With the father away, an Irish immigrant family struggle to survive their first winter in the Canadian wild.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

165

YOUR RATING

3User reviews

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 nomination total

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Storyline

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Goofs
At the beginning of the movie, the girl who narrates says it is 1830 in Canada and infers they emigrated from Ireland. Later, near the end of the movie, she tells a story of a poor family, meaning her own, that because of a famine in their land, they had to leave it. The "land" refers to Ireland, but the famine in Ireland wasn't until 1845.

User reviews3

Featured review

7/10

A Rare Irish-Canadian Tale

Oscar-nominated for best short film the year it was released, this touching film in English and Irish Gaelic tells the story of young girl and her brother's survival in the Canadian wilderness. It is the nineteenth-century era of pioneer immigration. Father is some distance away and Mother and two children try to survive the first winter in the wilds.

The film shows the loneliness of that first year and the tragedy that often accompanied dispossessed peoples on arrival in the New World. The three characters in this ensemble piece rely on memories of their culture, stories and songs to cope with their new and strange environment. Some aspects of the film stretch one's belief, particularly the children's lone survival, but the acting is fine and the children play their roles endearingly and convincingly.

It is a rare but pleasant event to see Irish Gaelic in a Canadian film. The native language of Irish and Scottish Gaels is so often ignored in films concerning these cultures.