by Robert Alstead

April 10 marks the eighth anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in Belfast. Four months after this watershed in the Northern Ireland peace process, a fringe splinter group, calling themselves the Real IRA, set off a car bomb in the crowded high street in Omagh. The bomb killed 29 people, including a pregnant woman with unborn twins, and injured 220 others. It was the worst single act of terrorism in Northern Ireland's bloody history, killing men, women, children, Catholics, Protestants and Northern and Southern Irish.
Like so much that has transpired in embattled Ireland, the motivation for such an atrocity remains murky. Although a tense opening passage depicts the building and the detonation of the bomb, Omagh focuses more on the aftermath and the impact on the victims' families and their fight to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The film, directed by Pete Travis with a script by Paul Greengrass -- Greengrass made the similarly politically charged Bloody Sunday -- follows soft-spoken Michael Gallagher (a tremendous performance by Gerard McSorley), a small-businessman, who, having lost his only son in the bombing, finds himself leading a support group for the victims' families.
It had become clear to Gallagher that the police and authorities were dragging their feet in the investigation, ironically, to protect the peace process. Gallagher responds by thrusting himself, with even more energy, into the campaign, even as the strain on his own family begins to tell. Gallagher, an ordinary man caught in a shadowy web of subterfuge and false promises, is led to a night-time rendezvous with an undercover, terrorist spy, and becomes the recipient of secret tip-offs and constant media calls.
In a memorable scene where Gallagher meets the opaque Irish Republican leader Gerry Adams (played credibly by Jonathan Ryan), Gallagher reaches out for help to bring the killers to justice, only to come up against soothing words and the hard line that nothing must jeopardize the peace process.
Omagh would not be half as effective at tackling the subject of balancing justice with peace, if it weren't for the powerful performances by the leads, particularly McSorley as Gallagher. The support group's campaign was eventually vindicated with the publication of a police ombudsman's report, which condemned both the police and British Intelligence for widespread errors, both before and after the bombing, including failing to act on information that might have prevented the carnage.
Originally released for television in the UK in 2004, the film concludes with a landmark victory. The campaign, however, continues. Most recently, Gallagher has unsuccessfully (at time of writing) urged a Toronto-based web hosting company "to shut down a Real IRA hate-site." The Omagh Support and Self Help Group provides more information at www.omaghbomb.co.uk
VIFF audience award winner returns to VIFC
The new Vancouver International Film Centre has gained its stride with a varied selection of films from around the world. This month sees the return of festival favourite Kamchatka (until April 9), a bittersweet drama set against the military coup d'état in 1976, when thousands of Argentineans disappeared. The story is told through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy, as his activist parents hide out in the country with their two young sons. The regime's political violence is implied and off-screen, contrasting with the warm intimacy of the family, as the parents try, in vain, to conceal the gravity of the situation and carry on as normal. Considering how low-key the film is, it was a surprising audience award winner at VIFF 2003. The touching, sad tone will leave you with the warm fuzzies.
Film festival focuses on music
Pacific Cinematheque hosts a six-day festival (April 20 to 25), featuring 16 movies and documentaries devoted to music. Big Smash -- the festival takes its name from the album by Wreckless Eric, also a fest guest -- opens with Peter Watkins' intriguing, sixties mockumentary Privilege, about a futuristic, state-controlled rock star (Paul Jones of Manfred Mann), who rebels against his totalitarian oppressors. The fest has something of a retrospective theme, with films featuring Nina Simone, the history of the Jamaican sound system, biopics about The Clash's Joe Strummer, Ronnie Lane of The Small Faces and lounge king Juan Garcia Esquivel. It's also a chance to see The Devil and Daniel Johnstone, a Sundance Film Festival award winner, which depicts the brilliant, but manic-depressive, musician of the title. Further information is available at www.bigsmash.com

Robert Alstead is currently making a cycling documentary entitled You Never Bike Alone