Cast: Carolyn Bracken, Jed Murray, Neill Fleming, Eric O’Brien, Lalor Roddy, John Connors
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Directors: Edwin Mullane, Adam O’Keeffe
In Irish Cinemas: 5th December 2025
It’s a story as old as storytelling itself: when kinship and cash collide, the things that matter most can’t be itemised on a page. Far out in Ireland’s windswept west, the passing of Colm Canavan (Lalor Roddy) summons his four long-scattered children back to the family home. Cass (Carolyn Bracken) returns after years away, while her brothers Jer (Jed Murray) and Evan (Eric O’Brien) never truly escaped its shadow. When their older brother Niall (Neill Fleming) appears for the reading of the will, the old friction between him and Jer rekindles immediately. The solicitor’s terms only heighten the strain: the house and land are all that remain, and the siblings have a single day to agree unanimously on what to do with it or lose everything to the state.
Jer and Evan can’t imagine letting the place go. Cass and Niall, meanwhile, conceal private crises: she’s on the verge of foreclosure, and he’s fighting to keep custody of his son. As the clock winds down and loyalties shift, it’s Evan who is desperately trying to stitch the family back together and ends up holding the deciding piece of the puzzle.
A blend of drama and dark comedy, Horseshoe unfolds in the stark beauty of North Sligo’s Gleniff Horseshoe, with extra scenes shot across Roscommon and Donegal. At its centre is Bundrowes House on the Leitrim–Donegal border, a remote, half-forgotten structure that shapes the film’s atmosphere as profoundly as any actor. More than a setting, it becomes a silent sibling, drafty, haunted, and heavy with memory.
Adam O’Keeffe’s script thrives on the weight the characters carry: grudges never voiced, guilt never shaken, moments of reconnection that arrive sideways rather than head-on. The film moves from flaring tempers, such as the brothers’ explosive clash, to fragile, small-scale breakdowns, like Cass collapsing under the table for a private cry. The lived-in chemistry is no coincidence: the directors wrote these roles for this exact ensemble, familiar faces they’ve collaborated with before.
If Azazel Jacobs’s His Three Daughters (2023) leans into the quiet tensions between sisters, Horseshoe widens the emotional palette, stitching together barbed humour, sibling rivalry, and moments of surreal honesty. It’s not just about a fractured family; it also captures the sideways tenderness shared by people who speak love through snark, exasperated sighs, endless cups of tea, and the occasional psychedelic detour.
Composer Anna Mullarkey, drawing on a decade of experience and her hybrid folk-electronica sensibilities, crafts her first feature score with an ear for place. Traditional motifs, jigs, modes, and the musical grammar of the West interweave with cinematic orchestration, grounding the film in its cultural landscape while nudging its emotional arcs forward.
Premiering at the Galway Film Fleadh with support from Screen Ireland, Horseshoe establishes Edwin Mullane and Adam O’Keeffe as confident new voices in Irish filmmaking. Their earlier short works—Mullane’s Cleaner (2021) and O’Keeffe’s Where Still Waters Lie (2020) hinted at this trajectory, each exploring themes of loss and fragile connection. Despite a modest budget and a lightning-quick three-week shoot, they turn constraints into creative propulsion.
With its blend of quirky humour, emotional sharpness, and deep affection for rural Ireland, Horseshoe emerges as both a love letter to the landscape and an impressive introduction to two promising filmmakers.
Overall: 7/10
Movie Reviewer
