Short Film of the Week: Watch ‘Runners’ by Ronan and Rob Burke

Ronan and Rob Burke’s 2009 short film Runners stars Mark Butler, Aaron O’Toole, Siobhan Shanahan and Aidan Gillen, and won the IFTA for Short Film at the 7th Annual Irish Film & Television Awards in 2010.

Looking back on the film Ronan Burke told Film Ireland that “Runners was made as part of the IFB’s Signatures scheme. It’s a raw snap shot of a couple of days in the life of a young man called Derek who has come to a crossroads. He’s been operating as a low-level drug runner for a local low life and while he’s not particularly adept at this occupation he doesn’t see many other options available to him. His parents seem ill-equipped to give him guidance in this regard and the vacuum is filled by the wrong type of people. Ironically, Derek is concerned about the fate of his younger brother and tries his best to provide him with some kind of guidance – almost as if he knows that while it may be too late for him, his brother still has a chance.

“The screenplay was written by Pierce Ryan and what we found interesting about it was that. although this kind of situation is often self perpetuating. there was a ray of hope in the fact that Derek had a degree of self awareness and concern for his brother’s future. And there was a sadness in the fact that an eighteen year old would consider themselves beyond having a bright future.”