Holy Cross

Holy Cross purports to be a true representation of the horrifying and shaming events in Belfast back in 2001 when Catholic schoolgirls were subjected, by protesting loyalists, to a tunnel of verbal and physical abuse on their way to classes. But the whole film is filled with fictional episodes and characters which seek to condition the audience into a deeper understanding of the background to the story. There is a wholly moral line of thought which suggests such attacks on children require no forgiving back story and are disgraceful in themselves, with or without the nod of history, but that doesn't seem have occurred to the makers (BBCNI, of course). In their heavy-handed attempt to rewrite the facts any understanding of why the loyalists behaved in such a shocking manner is put well beyond use.

This is one of those films where editorial and political concerns about content seek to revise the truth. And under those strictures any comment about performances or technical graces is irrelevant.

Absurdly this one part drama was split into two pieces by the BBC on the night it was shown, interrupted by the news - this only added to the fiction of the whole film.