Academy Award Nominee, Best Live Action Short Film
Everything In This Country Must
Directed by Gary McKendry
Written by Gary McKendry and Colum McCann
Starring Sam Spruell, Gerry Doherty and Karly Greene
Fifteen year old Katie lives on a remote farm with her equally remote father. When a sudden flood strikes, her father’s favorite horse is caught in a fast rising river. As Katie and her father work desperately to save the drowning animal, a British Army patrol show up and help to save the horse. For a while the farmhouse is filled with life and laughter. But this is Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and Katie’s father would rather sacrifice his horse than be grateful to the enemy who killed his wife and son. This period drama was filmed on location in Northern Ireland.
A drowning horse, a rain storm, a car crash, a tank, machine guns and an underwater sequence. All good reasons for not making this film. All of which I thankfully ignored. After discovering his book, Everything In This Country Must, I tracked Colum McCann down and told him if he gave me the rights, I’d get the film nominated for an Oscar. Crazy, I know. But that’s how much I believed in it. Lots of others did too. Especially people from Northern Ireland. They understood the idea that no one is to blame in this situation. We are all born into these roles. But that brutal truth came wrapped in the poetry of a young girl’s inner voice. So turning the story into a film was about balancing visual reality and the simple beauty of the girl’s words. And not dying of hypothermia was pretty important too.
