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Irish director Niall Heery's debut feature is a study of male friendship and broken dreams, set to a country music soundtrack. In a tiny logging community in rural Ireland, Doug (Iain Glen) is an unassuming fork-lift driver too shy to let anyone listen to his country music demo tape. His life, and that of best mate Bill (Steven Mackintosh) changes when old friend Burley (Stuart Graham) arrives after a year in prison. The result is an understated, elegiac, moving film.

While Doug struggles to avoid logging work by giving guitar lessons, Bill is trying hard to persuade son Tony (Laurence Kinlan) to stay and work at the small engine repair shop that provides his living. This sleepy peace is threatened, though, when Burley arrives wanting to know who gave his name to the police after a drink driving accident. Meanwhile Doug finally finds the courage to play a gig at the local pub, and (you guessed it), he's good. Soon, local country music radio is calling him a rising star. So will he really become a somebody? And will he win back lost girlfriend Agnes (Kathy Kiera Clarke)?

"REFUSES CLICHÉ OR SENTIMENTALITY"

This is a film about far-reaching dreams that run under the surface of invisible lives. Heery's shots of the Irish logging town conjure a place at once beautiful and claustrophobic, and the ensemble cast - especially Steven Mackintosh - do justice to a great screenplay that refuses cliché or sentimentality. But it's Glen's brilliantly understated performance of the sensitive, troubled Doug that elevates Small Engine Repair way above the competition; by the end, his small journey of quiet redemption will mean everything to you.

Small Engine Repair is out in the UK on 7th Sept 2007.