A Particular Friend

On a windswept stretch of the Northern Ireland coast, a remote conversion-therapy centre runs on discipline, prayer and the quiet certainty that desire can be corrected. Father Matthew (Brian Milligan) believes in the work, until he stumbles onto an intimacy between two of his fellow priests that the institution exists to deny. Doing what he has been taught is right sets off a chain of consequences he cannot control, and the crisis that follows is as much about his own heart as about the rules he has sworn to uphold. Written and directed by Eileen Tracey, who developed the script through interviews with survivors of conversion therapy, this short drama was backed by Northern Ireland Screen and selected for the Inside Out festival's RE:Focus Fund. Desmond Eastwood and Chris Robinson co-star in a film that treats faith, silence and longing with rare restraint.