The Troubles: A Dublin Story – Review

Writer-director Luke Hanlon (Drama) brings a gritty and brutal look at a rarely seen piece of Irish history in his stark and edgy feature The Troubles: A Dublin Story. This film is available now on DVD and digital from High Fliers Films.

Based on true accounts from those who were there and experienced the bloody battles first hand, this powerful and violent film sheds light on the politics, allegiance and bloodshed of the time.

The film does a good job of showing the conflict’s impact on individuals, families and communities and how easily people could become drawn into the world of violence.

1980s North Dublin, we meet Sean (Ray Malone) and Francis (Adam Redmond) Shannon, two working- class brothers who are far removed from the horrors of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. When they witness the atrocities on television, they’re shocked into action and soon find themselves naively drawn into the complex and dangerous world of the fight.

Luke Hanlon handles the subject matter deftly, giving a fairly straight portrayal of the events of the time and how naivety can lead people to make choices that may not be in their own best interests.

The set design, costumes and cinematography in this are wonderful, completely belying the low budget nature of the feature and there are some genuinely tense moments to be had early on when the brothers join William Delaney‘s Finn in a raid on a village post office and things don’t go to plan.

The violence in the film is fairly low key and not glorified, in fact it is mostly portrayed as kind of a pointless exercise that even the people involved don’t really seem to understand. This adds to the overarching feeling of the brother’s naivety and the hold elder community members hold over them.

The central performances from Adam Redmond as the more level headed Francis & Ray Malone as the hot headed Sean are full of nuance and the fairly grounded dialogue between them portrays them as real people giving the film the feel of a crime drama walking a line between the likes of The Essex Boys and anything by Ken Loach.

With The Troubles: A Dublin Story Luke Hanlon has managed to deliver a film that takes a difficult subject matter and delivers the viewer a nicely rounded view of the struggles of troubled family, friendships and community.

THE TROUBLES: A DUBLIN STORY may be a film you would usually overlook, but I’d say it’s well worth your consideration.

Available now on DVD and Digital from High Fliers Films.