Synopsis

After losing his job, Dublin baker Bimbo Reeves spends his severance money on a battered food van and recruits his unemployed friend Larry as a partner. Their fish-and-chips business thrives during Ireland's 1990 World Cup excitement, but success brings cramped working conditions, jealousy, resentment, and strain to their long-standing friendship.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film is based on Roddy Doyle's 1991 novel, the third part of the Barrytown Trilogy. The screen series also includes The Commitments and The Snapper.

• Doyle co-wrote the screenplay and helped produce the film through Deadly Films, the company he established with producer Lynda Myles.

• The Van was selected for the 1996 Cannes Film Festival and screened in competition.

• Eric Clapton contributed to the music, with additional score material by Richard Hartley.

• The story is set in the fictional Dublin suburb of Barrytown, while filming took place in North Dublin and at Ardmore Studios in County Wicklow.

• The version shown at Cannes was later tightened in the editing room, with several minutes removed before the film's wider release.

• The Irish premiere took place in Dublin on November 20, 1996, followed by a nationwide release on November 29.