Detainment

Two boys are brought to a police station. Both are ten. They are questioned in separate rooms with their families beside them. The questions are simple at first: where did you go that day, who did you see. Then an image comes from the recordings; they are leading a child away by the hand in a shopping centre. The missing child is two. The questioning goes on. The two boys blame each other. The narrative does not leave the interview room and does not show the event itself. Vincent Lambe writes and directs. Ely Solan, Leon Hughes, Will O'Connell and David Ryan are in the cast. It is an Irish production and a short film. The narrative rests on the real interview transcripts; most of the dialogue is taken from the records. The film is about a murder that happened in England in 1993, one of the most discussed cases in the country. It was nominated for the Oscar for best short film. A large reaction followed the nomination; the victim's family had not been told about the film and a petition was started to have the nomination withdrawn. The director acknowledged that he had not asked the family and said it was a mistake. The narrative does not defend the boys and makes no excuses; the aim is to show how it happened. The narrative means to make the viewer uncomfortable and it succeeds. Its limit is ethics; the subject is real and recent, no permission was sought, and the argument is larger than the film. Who it is for: viewers who like short films drawn from real events. Who it is not for: it is shattering, contested, and the ending heavy.