WFT is delighted to share that WFT Board Member Siobhan Farrell’s company Eclipse Pictures is distributing Face Down – The Disappearance Of Thomas Niedermayer in Irish cinemas on 11 August. Directed by Gerry Gregg, the film is written and produced by David Blake Knox and based on the book Face Down by David Blake Knox. The Official World Premiere is to take place at the 35th Galway Film Fleadh on Saturday 15 July at 2.15pm at the Town Hall Theatre and you can buy tickets for the Galway Film Fleadh Screening here!
Speaking on the world premiere screening and theatrical release, director Gerry Gregg commented: “This is a story about how the ends can never justify the means and how in the case of the Niedermayer family and many others the legacy of violence is a crushing burden for the victims of terror.”
Speaking of the making of the film, writer and producer David Blake Knox said: “I hope our film reminds its viewers that the families of those who were victims in the Troubles also suffered terribly – and, in many cases, continue to suffer – from the effects of that violence.”
About the film
On 27th December 1973, a nightmare began for an entire family. On that night, Thomas Niedermayer, Germany’s Honorary Consul to Northern Ireland and the Manager of the Grundig Factory in West Belfast, was kidnapped from his home in Belfast. He was never seen alive again by his friends or family. He became one of the ‘disappeared’, and it seemed that no-one knew what had happened to him.
His wife, Ingeborg, and his daughters Renate and Gabriele, spent the next seven years not knowing if Thomas were alive or dead. Then, in 1980, an IRA defector provided the RUC with information that led to the recovery of Thomas’s body. But the trauma for the Niedermayer’s did not end there. In the years that followed the emotional toll would decimate the family.
Thomas and Ingeborg’s only granddaughters, Tanya and Rachel, were told nothing of this history when they were growing up. Now, 50 years after their grandfather was kidnapped, they have embarked on a painful journey of discovery – to find out the shocking truth of what really happened half-a-century ago.
About the team
Face Down was made with funding from Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland and RTÉ. Directed by Gerry Gregg. Produced and written by David Blake Knox and executive produced by Catherine O’Flaherty and Kelda Crawford-McCann. Executive producer for Screen Ireland Greg Martin. Executive producer for RTÉ Colm O’Callaghan. Executive producer for ARTE Thorge Thomsen. Co-producer Haydn Keenan in association with Smart Street Films. Directors of Photography Séamus Deasy, Isaac Walgos. Sound Design Dean Jones. Music composed by Giles Packham. Film Editor Vinny Beirne. Distributed by WFT Board Member Siobhan Farrell’s Eclipse Pictures.
