I only got to see three films at this year‘s Melbourne Irish Film Festival but they were all really solid. I really appreciate festival director Enda Murray‘s choice of films (and his endearingly bumbling introductions and Q&As).

This was a good one to end on, late on a Sunday night. It is set on a farm in Northern Ireland where middle aged farmers Ward (Nigel O’Neill who has a distinct, grizzled Sam Neill vibe) and Cath (Ali White) are so buried under debt that they feel they can’t go on. They are making plans, we are not sure what they are, but it involves selling off their herd and packing up their belongings.

Young, urban neighbour Boyle (Abe Smyth) feels like something is not quite right with them but they blow him off, pretending that it is business as usual. It is not though, and the arrival of Shepherd (Barry John Kinsells), a slick gold watch wearing besuited fixer, begins a chains of a chain of events that doesn’t go exactly as planned. 

I quite enjoyed not knowing where the film was going so I won’t give you details of who Shepherd is, just that it develops into a genuinely compelling thriller where the bumbling couple need to step up to protect what is theirs.

As part of Northern Ireland‘s new talent development, this was the first feature of Director John Carlin and writer Tara Hegarty. Shot in 18 days, it is set in and around a bleak and isolated farm in Ballymena in Northern Ireland and inspired by real stories of desperate debt and exploitation. They do a good job at making the location a significant character in the drama and I think the plight of the Wards will speak to many rural families across the world.

I think the common thread I have found with the three Irish Film Festival films that I saw this weekend – Stolen, Verdigris, and this one – is the strength in their character development and storytelling that is more than just a personal narrative, saying something about the state of Ireland and Northern Ireland in the past and today and that resonate as universal stories.