Sinead O’Shea’s acclaimed new Irish documentary is set for nationwide Irish and Northern Irish release on 14th of September.
One night in 2012, Majella O’Donnell took her teenage son Philly to a laneway near to her home to be shot in the legs by local gunmen. In a shocking, intimate yet often warm and surprisingly humorous portrait of a family, A Mother Brings Her Son to be Shot tells their story.
Majella, her son and the gunmen are all part of the dissident community in Derry, Northern Ireland. The Troubles in Northern Ireland was supposed to have ended in 1998 with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, but this community do not accept the government or police. To them, the war is not over, even as family life continues.
In the absence of a normal relationship with the police, dissident Republicans step in to combat a perceived drug epidemic with their own brutal form of justice. Majella was faced with an agonising choice: cooperate with a punishment shooting or risk even worse consequences for her son.
A Mother Brings Her Son to Be Shot is produced by Sinead O’Shea, Ailish Bracken and Katie Holly of Blinder Films with Figs Jackman and André Singer of Spring Films and Oscar-nominated Executive Producer Joshua Oppenheimer. The production and release received the support of Screen Ireland, RTÉ and Inevitable Pictures.
A Mother Brings Her Song to Be Shot is released nationwide on 14thSeptember.
There will be a Q&A with Sinead O’Shea after the Opening Night screening on the 14th September at the Light House Cinema, Dublin (Booking open here) and in the Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast on 15th of September.
