The film adaptation of Ciarán McMenamin's debut novel Skintown will have its premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival this weekend. The 2017 novel is based on McMenamin's hometown of Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, and takes its title from the town's nickname.

Directed by Kieron Walsh, the film stars Jack Rowan, Chris Walley, Hope Ikpoku Jnr and Jamie-Lee O'Donnell. The cast also includes Tara Lynne O'Neill. The story is fiction but draws on McMenamin's own experiences of growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and the attempts by young people to escape that environment.

McMenamin said the world of the story belongs to him and his friends from that period. He described the escapism of the rave scene and the way young people came together and discovered they had more in common than they had thought. The film's soundtrack features music by Prodigy, Elastica, Happy Mondays and Carl Cox.

McMenamin said he never expected the novel to become a film. He said he was proud to put his hometown on the big screen and noted that Fermanagh has not often been depicted on screen. He said he would be happy to be known as the person who brought Fermanagh to the screen. He also said he enjoys writing about home and that living in England gives him an interesting perspective on where he is from.

He compared the film's tone to Derry Girls, noting both are set in the same era and share a similar sense of humour. He said the film contains serious messages and heavy drama but also works as an entertaining night out, and that the humour is the element he is proudest of.