The Flats, directed by Alessandra Celesia, is a powerful documentary that delves into the collective memory and lingering trauma of Belfast’s New Lodge, a Catholic neighborhood deeply scarred by the Troubles.
The film follows Joe and his neighbours as they reenact and confront memories from their childhoods during the violent era of the Troubles. This area, marked by a high number of deaths during the conflict, is portrayed as a place where the past and present are inseparably intertwined. The film uses a blend of documentary realism, staged reenactments, and archival footage to create a “haunted inner landscape” where the echoes of history reverberate through everyday life.
Filmmaker Alessandra Celesia was born in Italy and lives between Paris and Belfast. Celesia says “New Lodge is a visual experience because of the towers, the flats. They’re really peculiar in Belfast because it’s really not a high-rise town. I started to make enquiries and it turned out New Lodge was the area where my husband’s dad’s family was originally from. It was just a crazy coincidence that I was digging into family history without knowing.”
She continued, “I arrived in the North for the first time just before the Good Friday Agreement and I said I would never make a film about the Troubles. It’s the past, it’s finished, and now we’re looking for something else. And I kept my promise until I found New Lodge, where it’s just so clear there is this whole generation traumatized by this thing that they never got over. For any war, this is exactly what happens. Once you start it, there will always be a group left frozen in that time, for their whole life.”
WATCH THE TRAILER
THE FLATS is in cinemas from May 23rd