The Writing on the Wall

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.