The Flats

The Catholic neighborhood of New Lodge in Belfast was a flashpoint during the Troubles, the conflict between Protestant loyalists and Catholic republicans. On paper the Troubles ended in 1998, but the wounds are far from healed.

This documentary follows Joe McNally, who was nine-years old when he witnessed the kidnapping of his uncle. Six months later Joe threw his first gasoline bomb. Conversations with his therapist reveal the raw pain that lingers just below the surface.

The lives of McNally’s fellow residents in the New Lodge tower block have each, in their own way, been marked by the Troubles. Together with them, McNally reenacts memories from his childhood: his uncle’s wake, comforting his grandmother at night.

The fragmentary structure of the film reflects how trauma splinters reality, and reveals how the past constantly forces its way into the present. McNally stares interminably into the blue mist of his television, watching old archive footage. He still sees the world through the prism of this lacerating conflict; through the eyes, he says, of his nine-year-old self.