Suit Hung. Tied Tongue

An account of the events involving the murders of a politician and a detective by two brothers in Ireland.

This dramatic feature tells the story of two brothers in Ireland, Sean (Leger) and Freddie (Eydt) who decided to assassinate the Minister of Change & Reform, Paul Keogh (William Morgan), who they believed was dishonest. Filmed as a pseudo-documentary, this film utilises interviews, photographs, news footage and home video footage in order to describe the events that led to the terrible event and the aftermath and the result is an emotional and tense viewing that explores a vile act, the effects it had on those who knew the perpetrators and the victims and on Ireland as a country.

The feature begins by looking into the brothers' upbringing, revealing how they grew up without a father and were raised by a loving mother who passed away due to cancer and was a victim of the CervicalCheck cancer scandal. Nevertheless, the brothers grew up to be decent individuals, played the guitar and socialised a lot. However, they eventually became convinced that their government was no-good and decided to carry out their heinous crime. They acquired guns and posted videos online of themselves wearing masks and announcing their plan to the public. The feature also explores the lives of their two victims, the other victim being Detective Garda Christopher Keane. The film then moves on to the act itself, that, before going to the devastating consequences, which involve the loss of two outstanding people, the pain it caused to their loved ones and the damage it did to Ireland, creating political tensions and inspiring various militia groups to show support for the perpetrators.

The interviewees are numerous and they include Phyllis (Freda King), a former neighbour of the brothers, Dean (Black), a friend of Sean, Emma (Hayes), Sean's girlfriend, a clinical psychologist (Helena McInerney), a detective (Paul Sparkes) and Fionnuala, Paul's wife. They all give detailed accounts of significant events and they express their opinions regarding what happened and their words are quite dramatic. Listening to their voice-over while looking at photos of the brothers as children and of pictures of Paul and Keane is heartbreaking and it is sinister while the culprits are seen holding guns.

Commendations go to Luke De Brun for the creative editing and Mario Rodighiero deserves credit for the melancholic, ominous and dynamic score that develops a bleak and tense atmosphere.

This is a rather intriguing viewing that operates as a documentary and the performances and filmmaking techniques make it feel like the events were all factual. Generally, this feature could be viewed as a commentary about murder, Irish politics and police negligence and it states that violence leads nowhere.