Bring Them Down

Michael, the youngest son of a shepherding family, lives with his ailing father, Ray. Burdened by a terrible secret, Michael has isolated himself from the world. When a conflict with rival farmer Gary and his son Jack escalates, Michael is drawn into a devastating chain of events, forcing him to confront the horrors of his past, leaving both families permanently altered.

COMMENTARY
The directorial debut of Christopher Andrews, Bring Them Down, takes us into rural Ireland where tormented figures lurk against the background of serenely bucolic landscapes, suspended between the shadows of a dark past and imminent future threats. A complex drama of family feuds, in which the tension of an adrenalin-rushing story is tangible and every word or movement of the protagonists is charged with omens, leading to a finale that is as violent as it is surprising.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
We all feel pain, a wound we conceal. It is up to us to decide whether to accept this condition of vulnerability or to blame the world. What is conflictual in this film reflects things that I experienced as a child, growing up between the Catholic and the Protestant part of the family, in the long shadow of the old fathers. That was an area of conflict. Nevertheless, the church was also the space in which I felt most secure. There was a comfort there. One of the stories I learned there led to a central question of this film: what if the good shepherd, after leaving the ninety-nine saved souls to rescue the lost sheep, returned to find that someone had rustled or murdered his flock?