A mixed-media digital mythopoetic psycho-geographical work, The Lough is Mark McKeown’s meditative tone poem on Lough Neagh and its surrounding landscapes. Created in collaboration with musician Neil Burns, the film features footage captured over a ten-year period, interwoven with idiosyncratic animations and ambient soundscapes.
Flowing water, shifting grass and riverbanks form a rhythmic visual language, evoking the ceaseless motion of Ireland’s largest lough. Diptych compositions and dreamlike imagery – water molecules, sandpipers, a passing plane, the glow of the moon – merge with an atmospheric score to create a hypnotic, immersive experience. The film traces human and natural intersections: cycle paths winding along the shore, swans gliding across the surface, and unseen coordinates mapping the landscape. In its enigmatic closing moments, The Lough drifts into the surreal, as alien presences emerge from the water, hinting at hidden dimensions beneath the familiar surface.