the flats

Source: CPH:DOX

‘The Flats’

Icarus Films has acquired North American distribution rights to The Flats, winner of the best film award at last year’s CPH:DOX festival. 

Directed by Belfast-based Italian filmmaker Alessandra Celesia, the documentary is a co-production between France’s Films de Force Majeure, the UK’s Dumbworld Productions, Ireland’s Planet Korda Pictures and Belgium’s Thank You & Good Night Productions. France’s The Party acquired world sales rights.  

The Flats examines the memories and scarred psyches of pensioner Joe McNally and other present-day residents of a run-down Belfast housing estate. Juxtaposing archival footage with re-enactments performed by the residents, it explores the experiences of residents during The Troubles, the violent sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted from the 1960s to the late 1990s. 

As well as the Dox:Award at CPH:DOX, the film won the best feature documentary prize at this year’s Irish Film and Television Awards. 

Celesia previously made documentaries including 2017’s Locarno entry Anatomy Of A Miracle. Most recently, she wrote and directed French documentary drama The Mechanics Of Things.

Recent releases by New York-based Icarus have included documentaries Fiume O Morte!, Croatia’s submission for this year’s international film Oscar, and all three installments of Youth, Wang Bing’s acclaimed Chinese trilogy.

 

 

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