All The Leaves Are Brown

Description

Northern Ireland, 1975. Conor, a troubled young man in his twenties, runs towards a car, a smoking gun in his hand. He gets in and the car drives off, leaving behind the elderly office worker, Peter, that Conor has just shot dead. In the car, things feel ordinary. Conor and his friends have a normal conversation. The murder is never discussed. When Conor arrives home, his mother erupts with the news that his pregnant girlfriend has been taken to hospital. Conor will become a Father tonight. Conor rushes to the hospital. He is nervous, agitated, feeling the pressure of fatherhood… Luckily, all goes well, it’s a healthy birth. An out of body experience for Conor, as he sees his new-born baby for the first time. Still a little shaken up, Conor decides to take a break. He takes a long walk away from the ward, stepping outside into a quiet, dark night. He lights up a cigarette, exhaling as he thinks out to the next chapter of his life. But, just as Peter’s life was cut short, so is Conor’s — and he’s shot dead, right there, outside the hospital. Violence is cyclical, never-ending. You reap what you sow.

Biblical Connection

GALATIANS 6:7: Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. This verse has always had a profound effect on me. When I revisited the passage, it immediately inspired me to examine the cyclical nature of violence, which led me to set the film during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Choosing to set the story at this time was a decision I reached as I have a deep, personal connection to it; my father lived through The Troubles and it’s always, therefore, been a piece of history I’ve wanted to examine deeper. The endless tit-for-tat killings that occurred during The Troubles can be explored perfectly through this source. The Galatians verse is about actions and consequences; our fate is directly tied to every decision we make. What really hooked me was the idea of a chain reaction - one thing leading to the next, to the next, to the next, a never-ending cycle of cause and effect. The story is hooked around the arc of Conor, whose fate we see predetermined by the defining act of killing. No matter what follows, he will have to reap what he sowed.