Still waters run deep in Edwin Mullane and Adam O’Keeffe’s family drama Horseshoe.
Using a premise that many will find familiar, their debut film sees four siblings reunited in their family home on the west coast of Ireland after the death of their cantankerous father. This provides a rich vein to mine as this heartfelt tale of four bereft siblings explores the generational impacts of troubled domestic history and the ways in which family can still be there for one another even in the most difficult of circumstances. The film will be receiving its international premiere at the Oldenburg Film Festival this week, having first screened at Galway Film Fleadh where it won Best Irish First Feature.
Horseshoe has a gentle feel to it that belies the seriousness of the situation at its core. Jer (Jed Murray), Niall (Neill Fleming), Cass (Carolyn Bracken) and Evan (Eric O’Brien) come together in the wake of their father’s death for the reading of his will. The brothers and sister are clearly not close, with Jer and Evan still living in the old family home and Niall and Cass having flown the coop, seemingly at the first available opportunity. They’re an odd mix: Jer feels like a man of another generation, slightly awkward and formal; Niall is a firecracker, struggling with frustrating custody battle; Cass seems the most comfortable with herself but is hiding present and past trauma; and Evan is the quiet baby of the group, eager to please.
That they feel so starkly different to one another is not just by dint of their situations, they each occupy slightly different registers in the cacophony that is this family reunion. There are scenes in which they feel like they could almost be from different films, but the way they interact begins to paint a picture of very different ways their childhoods have shaped them and how they roles that chose or were forced to play in the household hierarchy echoes on now, decades later. Murray and Fleming play their roles slightly more theatrically, emphasising elements of their characters in a way that seems to follow from the violent history they shared with their father. Bracken and O’Brien seem to embody the mother they barely knew, a gentler more empathetic soul and their turns reflect this.
It’s an impressive balance to maintain in a drama like this which itself operates on various registers even with its characters doing the same. There are moments when narrative push threatens to derail things, but it never does, deftly steered by the directors and anchored by the cast. The reading of the will sets in motion a classic ultimatum in which their father, Colm (Lalor Roddy), seems to want to force them to take common action as regards their inheritance, or they’ll get nothing. Colm pops up from time to time, speaking to his children from their subconscious, adopting the sneering malice or gentle dolour that they recall him having. As the siblings all orbit one another trying to put forward their own interests, the audience comes to learn of the difficulties each face – whether that is recovery from addiction, final notices, closeted homosexuality – and how those shape their interactions and how they regard their own family.
Jass Foley’s cinematography and the editing and sound design largely stay out of the way to allow the performers the chance to reel the audience in. As the internal conflicts escalate, there are one or two slightly off notes, but they’re barely noticeable in a film that manages to so successfully navigate its labyrinthine emotional baggage. What it perhaps so notable is that it is both its overtly dramatic moments and its glimpses of quiet contemplation that Horseshoe shines. Like a family, it might not be perfect, but audiences will come away feeling all the better for 90 minutes in its company, and it marks another calling card for two voice in Irish cinema worth keeping an ear out for.
Directors: Edwin Mullane, Adam O’Keeffe
Cast: Jed Murray, Carolyn Bracken, Neill Fleming, Eric O’Brien, Lalor Roddy
Producers: Mo O’Connell, Edwin Mullane, Adam O’Keeffe
Cinematography: Jass Foley
Editing: Tony Cranstoun
Sound: Nikki Moss
Music: Anna Mullarkey
Production design: Mary Doherty
Production companies: WaveWalker Films, 3 Hot Whiskeys (Ireland)
Venue: Oldenburg Film Festival (International)
In English
88 minutes
