The Flats could have been a documentary that showed the damage that The Troubles has caused the working class of Belfast. Instead, it almost borders on exploitative. It could and should have been something so much better, something that shows the world that trauma is still here. However, it just ends up being a heavily flawed film that never reaches its potential.

From their central Belfast tower block, resident Joe and his neighbours confront the lingering ghosts of the Troubles, reliving the memories that have shaped their lives.

Trauma isn’t hard to find for people of a specific age in Belfast; almost everyone knows someone affected by the Troubles that plagued the country for decades, and its aftershocks still reverberate around the country to this day. We see the damage that still plagues the country to this day. People will never be able to forget what they experienced. It becomes fascinating when Alessandra Celesia focuses on how that trauma still hangs around and seeps down through the generations of people who live in areas like the New Lodge.

People have pushed their trauma down and spread it to their children through a variety of manners. From domestic abuse to alcohol and drug abuse, the marks of the Troubles live on and will do so for many more decades. With parents still suffering from PTSD from what they experienced during that time, it is only expected that their trauma will eventually feed through and cause their children to be punished by it. It is a vicious circle that isn’t broached enough in the film.

The Flats is such a mixed bag of a film. At points, it is overwhelmingly sad and poignant, and then suddenly, it will lose everything it built up by meandering to the edge of frustration. So much works here and emotionally grabs you, which is fantastic. However, when The Flats flounders, it does so to devastating effect on your feelings towards it.

The reenactments spread throughout The Flats simply does not work; it’s an ambitious experiment that has more questions than answers when we see that we are dealing with people who are still deeply traumatised by what they experienced. What should be an immersive touch for audiences to feel closer to the film’s subjects has us instead being distracted by it, pulling us out of those moments that would work so much better if they were simply told to us. The main question that arises from this idea is whether these reenactments are causing more damage mentally to these people. How ethical is it as a filmmaker to do this to her subjects? It’s a fine line that Celesia has to tread; at times, it slips into a morally uneasy situation.

As someone born and raised a mile from the New Lodge, I wanted to like The Flats, but there were simply too many issues that got in the way of appreciating what Celesia was going for. Her subjects are all she needed to get a fascinating documentary out. The working class in Belfast are underseen in truth, and the fact that trauma runs so deep in so many areas in Northern Ireland with little hope of it being corrected is distressing. With The Flats, that emotion is almost robbed from you due to the near-conceited nature of what is put on the screen.

The people who experienced The Troubles and those who feel its aftereffects deserve better than this documentary. The people of the New Lodge certainly do as well. It could and should have been so much better.

★★ 1/2

To see more of our coverage of the Docs Ireland festival please look below.

Making Waves

Anthony and the Bees

Fourth Wall and a Ceiling

Support Us

I am but a small website in this big wide world. As much as I would love to make this website a big and wonderful entity, that would bring in more costs. So, for now, all I hope is to make Upcoming On Screen self-sufficient—well enough that any website fees are less of a worry for me in the future. You can support the website below…

Patreon

You can support us in a variety of ways (other than that wonderful word of mouth and those lovely follows). If you are so inclined to help out, you can support us via Patreon; find our link here! We don’t want to ask much from you, so for now, we have limited our tiers to £1.50 and £3.50. These will, of course, grow the more we plan to do here at Upcoming On Screen.

Buy Us A Coffee

Our other method is through the wonderful Buy Us a Coffee feature, but seeing as we are not the biggest fans of coffee, a pizza will do! We keep it fairly small change on that as well, and it allows you to give just a one-off payment, so there’s no need to worry about that monthly malarky! We even have a little icon on the website for you to find it and help us out with the running of the website.

Social Media

You can also support us via Twitter and Facebook by following us and liking us. Every single one helps!