Maeve

Maeve has been living in London for years. She comes back to Belfast while the conflict in Northern Ireland is still going on. She stays in the family house with her sister Roisín and her parents. She also meets up with Liam, the man she used to be with. Her return stirs memories of childhood and adolescence, in her and in the people around her. The film moves back and forth between the present and those memories. The talk keeps returning to politics. Liam speaks for the liberation struggle. Maeve cannot find a place for women in the history he describes. Their argument is the spine of the film. Army patrols are a constant presence on the streets. Maeve and Roisín are harassed by them more than once. The safety of women becomes a question indoors as much as outdoors. Old legends, family stories and daily routine meet in the same conversation. Belfast is not a backdrop here but the subject itself. Mary Jackson and Mark Mulholland appear in the hundred and nine minute film, an Irish and British co-production Pat Murphy and John Davies finished in 1981.