Rules of the Road

Travellers have wandered the Irish countryside for centuries. They where tinsmiths, harvesters, migrant labourers, storytellers, horse traders, peddlers, knife grinders and scrap dealers. As centuries went by the so called 'tinkers' adjusted their life-styles to the changing conditions. In recent times however, the traditional life on the road is coming to an end. Since the sixties the 'tinkers' have migrated to the cities to work a new niche: they live on scrapyards, from other people's rubbish. Only a few still travel - the majority cannot afford to move. The welfare state simply defined them as a problem, as outcasts requiring assimilation. This destroys their culture and identity as the industrial age's last surviving nomads. RULES OF THE ROAD is a contemporary road movie passing over the familiar cliché of romantic escape. Instead the film focusses on travellers who are also the living exponents of an odyssey. Their situation reflects the state of mind of an absolutely industrial society. The 'tinkers' have no place left to go.