The Cistercian Monastery of Bolton Abbey in Kildare is a sleepy place. A farm that was converted to a monastery in the 1960s, it’s the home to seven ageing monks, the youngest of whom is in his seventies: Ambrose, Eoin, Martin, Michael, Alberic, Anthony and Francis.

Perhaps the most charming is the rugby-mad Alberic, who delayed his entry into the order as a young man in order to compete in the semi-finals of a rugby tournament and who retains a boyish mischief.

The film’s fascination comes in part from watching people who have made a huge, life-altering choice that I would never make, and cannot even conceive of making.

The monks are not blind to the downsides of that choice. There’s always the thought of the life not lived, the life that they would have led had they remained outside.

Did you ever miss being in love with a woman?

All my life.

But there seem to be few regrets. In the twilights of their lives these men have seemingly made peace with the choices they made in the flush of youth. If there is a feeling of uncertainty, it’s focused on the monastery itself; there have been no new novices for decades, and so it seems destined to end when the last of the current monks is unable to continue.

It’s a wonderfully intimate one-person film; Anna Ewert is director, camera operator, sound recordist, interviewer, and occasionally a reader of small newspaper print on behalf of the monks. This approach necessitates lots of static shots, but that works well in such a contemplative, slow-paced setting.

Where you might expect sadness and loneliness – rancour, even – Ewert actually finds warmth and humour, a tiny community plodding on ebulliently in its own way. Given this, and of course the Irish lilts and religious garb, it’s hard not to think of Father Ted. (At one point Brother Francis yanks repeatedly at the bannister rails, praising their solid construction; I half expected one to snap, and Frances to cry “Cowboys, Ted! They’re a bunch of cowboys!”) As the distant world cracks on without them and grows ever more distant, these lonely monks cope with the trials of everyday life, a craggy island of the past in a world that has already half forgotten them.