The story of a Protestant family set against the Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1969 was a personal one for editor Úna Ní Dhonghaíle, who co-wrote and co-directed 2014’s 'The Invisible Man' about her own father’s experiences during that time.
From there, Ní Dhonghaíle remembers poaching crowd imagery from the dailies, “like snatches of memory as it would be for you or I if we were caught in a riot.” She also focused on the boy’s mother as she grabs a dustbin and uses it as a shield to protect herself and her son. “We dipped into slow motion a little bit there, so the point of view could pass from Buddy to Ma and then back to Buddy again.
A scene featuring Will and Buddy in their garden is one that was removed and brought back — though as originally shot, it was meant to appear earlier in the film. “We just felt that we needed to track the danger to Will,” says Ní Dhonghaíle. “In the ’60s and ’70s, [both sides of the conflict] did try to recruit teenagers, and that was actually a major issue that we wanted to touch on. So we found ways of getting the footage back in.
Ní Dhonghaíle cites a scene during which Pa is leaving to go back to work in London. “Buddy was crying and saying, ‘I don’t want to leave Belfast.’ And then we put the scene of the dad leaving them and Buddy sees him from the window,” she says. “Speaking as someone with two small kids who comes to London to work — the painful part is when you leave early in the morning when they are [still] asleep [from] the night before, and you haven’t had a chance to say goodbye to them.
Another key sequence was the parents’ dance during an Irish wake, late in the film. “Ma and Pa sort of come back to each other after so many arguments,” she explains. “The dance was a vital element to keep … that balance of the film as seen primarily through the child’s point of view. But also it was very important to dip into the adult side so that you understood the danger that was outside the door.
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