The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid (directed by Feargal Ward, written by Tadhg O’Sullivan and Feargal Ward, produced by Luke McManus/FSE Films) is an Irish documentary that deserves to reach a wide audience. Although it has a short run-time (76 minutes), the film works as a profound statement on Ireland in the 21st-century.

Thomas Reid, the titular protagonist, is a County Kildare farmer who lives and farms his family lands. In recent years, much of Kildare has become a commuter belt serving Dublin and a hub for the multinational corporations which represent the Golden Fleece of Irish progress and economic development. The documentary charts the tensions between Reid’s life and values, and the competing logic of this all-encompassing drive for progress. The spark for this conflict manifests in the repeated, exhausting overtures from Ireland’s Industrial Development Authority (the IDA) to Reid that he sell his farm and home, to make way for proposed private enterprise. The IDA are responsible for attracting ‘foreign direct investment’ to Ireland, and seek to purchase the lands for this purpose.

Such arguments are all too familiar to Irish audiences at this stage. Ireland’s most recent presidential election played out a not dissimilar contest, between the incumbent Michael D. Higgins (#savethepoet) and a roster of ‘entrepreneurs’ who had become household names by playing their role on the TV show ‘Dragons’ Den’. There is something particularly distasteful about the concept of ‘Ireland Inc.’ espoused by such false prophets, and this mindset is evident throughout the documentary. Ireland Inc. became the rallying cry of the boom years – years in which the rates of corporation tax were lowered to attract foreign companies and grow a traditionally small and precarious economy. One of the key philosophies of Ireland Inc. is that we must all do our bit in the realisation of modern Ireland as ‘the best little country in the world to do business.’ This means asking no questions when the State fails to reap proportionate taxes from the global companies that headquarter on our shores for just this purpose. It also seems to mean being able to gleefully relinquish your lands for these ethically and financially disappointing tech behemoths.

Mounds of newspapers in the centuries-old farmhouse date back decades. One bundle from the late-90s reveals a series of newspapers telling a story about the poor air quality in the area. Reid identifies this period in the ’90s as the start of the trouble. This dating coincides with the roar of the Celtic Tiger in Ireland, the years of economic prosperity and growth that faltered with the 2008 financial crash.

The legal question which is posed in the conflict between Reid and the IDA, is whether they have the power to compulsorily purchase Reid’s lands for private enterprise. Although it has been established that lands and property may be compulsorily purchased for ‘the common good’, the legal proceedings which play out through the course of the film test whether this holds true for slightly less noble purposes… namely, an Intel factory.

Director, Feargal Ward, chooses to re-enact courtroom and legal scenes in the fields of Reid’s farm. Stenographers steady their machine in the long grass and barristers face off against judges amidst the bales. This decision presents the absurdity of two worlds colliding. The actors mouth the words of letters sent and lines taken directly from the court transcripts. Men in smart suits assail Reid with double-speak – no match for the honestly chosen words of the farmer – demonstrating a language divide that cannot be bridged. Meanwhile, the din of traffic provides a score for the struggle. Over the stone wall that marks a boundary of Reid’s lands, traffic drones past in an interminable performance of busyness.

However, Reid’s life is not a ‘forgotten Ireland’ or the last gasps of a dying Ireland. It’s a life that would be readily recognised by many, and it’s not without its modern embellishments. The ironies of his routine are the regular trips by bicycle to the local Tesco, where he appears as an out-of-place spectre, yet is known by the staff. Reid’s diet includes the cheap food products wrought by mass production. Reid is as capable as anyone of adaptation to modernity. He simply doesn’t want to be forced from his lands.

The dramatic arc of the film is compelling. It is a meditative elegy on rural life, and a gripping courtroom drama. The cinematography, by Ward, makes this a truly beautiful document. The film is one of the most ‘cinematic’ I’ve seen in the cinema this year. The camera follows Reid unobtrusively as he tends his cattle, occasionally blurring to evoke half-remembered memories. We first meet Reid in winter, and follow his battle through spring and summer, and back into the farthest reaches of another winter. The light throughout tracks the seasons, from grey and low, to sunlit yellows. Throughout, the film manages the balance of representing Reid without rendering him as an object of otherness.

A beautifully shot, meditative and compelling story of Irish life. The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid presents a personal narrative that dovetails with a wider Irish journey.

4/5