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Bookmark this pageThe Writing on the Wall (1982)
Director: Armand Gatti
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A youth workshop in Derry is mounting various projects, including a dramatised enquiry into the death of a soldier. But when a squaddy is shot on the doorstep, then real life intrudes in the shape of the police and security forces. Gatti's brave and honourable film forcefully engages with a subject with which we on the 'mainland' are often too ignorant - the images of violence are plainly visible day after day, but the means to interpret them is absent. By a diligent inclusion of the background cultural elements to the drama, Gatti builds a penetrating account of the Irish 'question' that does justice to the complexities of its condition. The film's confusions might be said to mirror those of its subject, but it demonstrates better than any other film to date the passion that lies behind a whole community's grievances. CPea.Author: CPea
Cast & crew
Director: Armand Gatti
Producer: Jean-Jacques Hocquard, François Leclerc, Colm Cavanagh, Jacques Gouverneur, Gérard Martin, Marc Minon
Cast: John Deehan, Brendan 'Archie' Deeney, Paddy Doherty, Nigel Haggan, John Keegan, Neil McCaul full cast
Duration: 114 mins
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