“The film details the killing of over 120 civilians by members of the British Army and members of the local police force, the RUC, in a period between 1972 and 1978.
“The major debate around my film and films like mine is that people would say why are you dragging up the past… I argue differently, what I say is that and the film tells us is that we need for a younger generation to learn about the past, they need to see how bad it was, how close we were to civil war and we need to learn the lessons of the past to move into the future. We can’t leave those skeletons in the closet because those issues can reignite. The death of young Lyra Mckee, the journalist who was killed last week just gives an indication of how close we can come to becoming involved in a conflict again.
“What this film is about, is to give voice to victims who were never afforded that voice during the conflict but it also has ramifications in regards to what Britain is doing presently in Afghanistan, in Iraq and elsewhere. It’s also about reclaiming our cultural memory, it’s about people who come from my community saying we do have a voice and we do have a story to tell about the conflict.”
‘Unquiet Graves’ screened at the Penrith Gaels Club on May 1, at Paddington’s Chauvel Cinema on May 3 and at Melbourne’s Kino Cinema on May 10 as part of the Irish Film Festival, and will screen on Sunday July 7 at 10:45AM and Wednesday July 10 at 4:40PM at Luna Leederville as part of Revelation Film Festival screenings presented by the Irish Film Festival
Listen to the full interview here – aired on 2SER and Film Fight Club
on Falkenscreen
