As Trust Is Broken Toxic Masculinity & Violence Take Hold in Christopher Andrews BIFA Thriller Bring Them Down’ [Video]

A film firmly seated in the pernicious nature of toxic masculinity and its corrosive reverberations through the generations, writer/director Christopher Andrews’ bold feature debut Bring Them Down isn’t one for the faint of heart. Pitting Christopher Abbott’s Michael, the tortured last son of a farming family against Barry Keoghan’s wayward impetuous Jack, Andrews’ thriller uses the microcosm of two warring families set against one another in the harsh landscape of rural west Ireland to explore the increasingly prevalent instinct to ensure that even the smallest slight is answered tenfold, igniting spirals of violence from which no one escapes unscathed. The unforgiving revenge tale also puts paid to the regressive view that audiences are hesitant to engage with non-English dialogue by being one of two feature debuts nominated for BIFA’sThe Douglas Hickox Award this year to prominently feature the Irish language. In our interview Andrews reflects on the destructive nature of toxicity, how he …