The Far Side of Revenge

Margo Harkin’s powerful documentary is one part in a body of her work that has chronicled the Northern Irish Troubles from 12 Days in July (1997) to Bloody Sunday – A Derry Diary (2010). A study on reconciliation, it also experiments with visual style for the first time since her debut feature film  Hush-A-Bye Baby (1990). The Far Side of Revenge follows dramatist Teya Sepinuck and a group of Northern Irishwomen as they develop a project presenting their own, often shocking, stories to the public. The group from politically diverse backgrounds includes Kathleen, whose husband was blown up by the IRA in 1990 and Anne, a former quartermaster in the IRA, whose uncle was murdered by the British Army on Bloody Sunday in 1972. Harkin’s documentary delivers an insight into a process of creation where the pain of individual stories is counterbalanced by the bond that develops between the women.