Conor McPherson loves a good ghost story. While not all of his works for the stage include literal spectres and otherworldly figures, even when his plays take place on the firm ground of reality, they still very often deal with loss, in a way that casts the ghostly shadow of memory and regret across the proceedings. In the case of his first film since 2003’s The Actors, all of these elements, conveyed in the typically Irish fashion that is McPherson’s trademark, are in play.

The Eclipse takes place during a literary festival in the small waterside Irish town of Cobh. Ciarán Hinds stars as Michael, a middle aged volunteer at the festival, and a relatively recent widower, who chauffeurs writers from their hotels to various events. Michael is a woodworking teacher by trade, but has long written for himself, content to let his annual pitching in at the festival serve to get close enough to the publishing industry to satisfy his modest literary ambitions. But just as the festival begins, things start to go bump in the night at his house, and he swears he has seen the spirit of his father-in-law wandering in the dark. The catch is, his father-in-law is not yet dead, but a resident of a nearby nursing home. With no one in his life that he’s close to that he might talk to apart from his children, he begins opening up to Lena (Iben Hjejle), a writer of ghost stories who he’s been driving around.

Their friendship unfolds tentatively, as that of two people who have grown insular due to experiences they feel they can’t relate to others. Lena writes ghost stories because she’s seen them herself, and these incidents have left their mark. When Michael drives her home after a long day at the festival, she invites him in — but what seems like a loaded gesture may only be a sign that she’s simply scared of the dark, and wants someone to make her feel safe until she can drift off to sleep.