Omagh

Synopsis: In the Irish town of Omagh in 1988 a bomb explodes in a busy street killing many local residents. Among them is 21 year old Aiden, the son of Michael Gallagher (Gerard McSorley) and wife Patsy (Michelle Forbes). As local residents are assured by police that everything is being done to catch the perpetrators, it would seem that no progress is being made. So the locals form the Omagh Support and Self Help Group. Michael is elected president, and leads the group in its struggle to find some measure of hope and truth among the despair.

This is another true story to come out of "The Troubles" in Ireland. Co-written by Paul Greengrass it is in the style of cinema verité, with hand-held cameras, no lights and no artifice of any kind. This style is magnificently exemplified in the opening sequences which build up to the actual explosion. In a very dimly-lit and tense night scene we see a van, followed by the mixing of various chemicals, interspersed with the credits. Then the camera abruptly cuts to an everyday street scene with people cheerily going about their daily business. The constant crosscutting between normality and the van arriving in the town builds an ominous sense of threat. The personal is introduced in the form of Michael and his son, obviously very close, working together on a car repair, until Aiden decides he needs to go to the town for a new pair of jeans. And so we have the individual engagement with characters, in the broader setting of the terror to come. The depiction of what happens during and after the explosion brings home the total lunacy of such tactics - it is the strongest aspect of the film, done with an immediacy and drama that is all too real. The wreckage, the panic, men in tears, confusion in hospitals - it leaps off the screen.

From this point the film takes a very different turn and focuses upon the situation two months later, as townsfolk are trying to grasp why no-one has yet been arrested. The early-established brutality and momentum is lost somewhat, as the politics of group meetings, IRA, Real IRA (the group apparently responsible), police, and government threaten to bog down and detract from the emotional impact of the earlier scenes. The film, however, is well held together by the brilliant performance of Gerard McSorley as Gallagher, who finds his family life straining under the pressure placed upon him. It is inspiring to see how a formerly unassuming guy takes on the mantle of representing the town, and grows in stature with the responsibility. There is a small appearance by Brenda Fricker as Nuala O'Loan, police ombudsman of Special Branch, who in a very powerful scene delivers information that the self-help group does not want to hear.

Unfortunately, the film loses steam towards the end and seems to wind to somewhat of an anti-climax. It is, nevertheless, an important story of particular resonance in these times; important not only because it reinforces the futility of terrorism, but also shows how ordinary people can maintain hope as they create solidarity and support in a quest for truth and justice, and move towards rebuilding their lives.

 

 

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