The Flats
Directed by Alessandra Celesia, 2024; Thank you and good night productions (Belgium), Planet Korda (Republic of Ireland) and Dumbworld (UK)

Starring Jolene Burns, Joe McNally, and Sean Parker, The Flats by Alessandra Celesia is a formidably grim portrayal of high-rise life Belfast – “New Lodge style” – in a drama which jumps from the 1970s to the present (and back again) in a cinemographic instant. It adds to the repertoire of “real-life” documentary dramas of interest to IR students and aficionados of political conflicts the world over. As for plot, in his tower-block apartment in New Lodge, Joe reenacts memories from his childhood amidst the “Troubles”. In this Catholic area of Belfast, the number of 1970s deaths seemed haemorrhagic. Joe is joined by neighbours Jolene, Sean, Angie, and others, all willingly participating in this process of revisiting the collective memories of the New Lodge district they share (and perhaps even begrudgingly love). It is a frank and at times emotionally cathartic experience for actors and audience alike.

For those not familiar with Belfast and its much euphemized “troubles”, New Lodge comprised seven 12-storey towers in its urbanized heart. It was one of the areas most severely affected by conflict during three decades. It was a district  where the number of casualties per inhabitant still shocks an international public. Today, this small Catholic neighbourhood is marked by urban and industrial obsolesce and social abandonment. Yet, something like an idealism and black humour percolates, emanating from the undoubted humanity and caustic humour of its inhabitants. That expert film reviewers approve enthusiastically of this effort by Celestia and her colleagues is shown by its crop of successes at recent  festivals – having already won the CPH:DOX and the Visions du Réel, among others. This is also evidence that Northern Ireland continues to rate high on the agenda of the global film-going public.

Anatomy of a Conflict

What is new about this film which might help us understand the conflict? Essentially this neglected Belfast housing estate offers a haunted inner landscape with dark, cinematic echoes that still reverberate in the very corridors of the aged New Lodge flats. An aging man on his final, existential mission confronts the ghosts of the past. In Alessandra Celesia words: “My aim was not to make a ‘political’ film, you know, but just to see the consequences of trauma… I........

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