“Rough” is set in contemporary Belfast, where conflict-era paramilitary factions have evolved into street gangs, who enforce their own form of justice on their communities. “Punishment Attacks” as they are known, can take many forms, from a severe beating, through to “kneecapping” (where the victim is shot in the knees, causing life-changing injuries) through to capital punishment. Whilst many communities privately lament this form of justice, few if any are brave enough to stand against the street gangs, who are brazen enough in their activities to hold their own kangaroo courts in fortresses masquerading as “social clubs”.

The police want to stop it, but because nobody in the community will step up to inform on the Godfathers, there is very little they can do short of catching the perpetrators in the act. At its most tragic and absurd, this practice even leads to parents taking their own children to be shot “by appointment”, where they will meet gunmen in dark alleys, with the understanding that the wounds inflicted will be non-lethal. It amounts to a completely twisted moral landscape and one of the worst things about it is that people get used to it.

That’s the context of “Rough”, but the deeper themes relate to the conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath. The film is about the brutalisation of communities over decades, the acceptance of horror, and ultimately, the fact that these things can be transformed, in small ways, by love – even if in this case, it’s love for a Jack Russell terrier. 

The film is also about truth-telling and forgiveness. There has been a great deal of argument in Northern Ireland about how best to process the terrible violence we inflicted on one another during the Troubles. How do we begin to tell the truth about what happened – who was responsible for killings, and for orders to murder and maim? And what is more important to us – judicial process and the punishment of the guilty, or just knowing the truth so that we can begin to accept it? The only thing that is clear is that the act of telling the truth takes enormous courage, but when it happens, it can be transformative.

In the final scene of “Rough”, one young man, in a fit of conscience, decides to tell the truth about something he did. The response is a spontaneous, but very significant, act of forgiveness. The central theme of our film is that in an absurd world of obscene power, unthinking violence, and masculinity gone wrong, the truth can – just once in a while – set us all free.