Garage

Garage is a 2007 Irish film directed by Lenny Abrahamson and written by Mark O'Halloran, the same team behind Adam & Paul. It stars Pat Shortt, Anne-Marie Duff and Conor J. Ryan. The film tells the story of a lonely petrol station attendant and how he slowly begins to come out of his shell. Garage won the CICAE Art and Essai Cinema Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the Best Film prize at the 25th Torino Film Festival. Plot Josie (Pat Shortt) is a good-natured man with learning difficulties who lives and works at a garage in a small rural Irish village. The owner, Mr. Gallagher, is a former schoolmate who is not interested in the garage and is only waiting for the right offer from developers so he can sell. For Josie, one day rolls into another with nothing but his menial job and a few pints in the local pub, even though the regulars mock him and his ways. Kind-hearted Josie's only other companion is a large horse that is tethered alone in a field. He talks to the animal and brings it food. One day his boss hires his girlfriend's 15-year-old son, David (Conor Ryan) to help Josie. Slowly Josie connects with David as they endure the slow and menial pace of the garage. One night after work, Josie innocently shares some beers with David. They sit and watch the sunset at the rear of the garage. Josie joins David and other local teenagers down by the railway tracks and brings beer for all of them. The new social aspects to his life lifts his confidence. At the local pub, he gets the courage to dance with Carmel, the local shopkeeper. But she shows her cynicism for Josie by explicitly telling him she feels no physical attraction towards him.