'We had a cast, crew, and house, but no story': Cork filmmaker on the making of Horseshoe

Film-makers Adam O’Keeffe and Edwin Mullane’s debut feature, Horseshoe, is a compelling family drama that follows four siblings as they reunite at their childhood home following their father’s death.

This reunion surfaces old disputes and unresolved issues, all while highlighting their shared struggles with their complex relationship with their father.

Parental death is a complex topic, but the film is filled with plenty of humour as the family faces foibles and old arguments. O’Keeffe, who is from Carrigtwohill, says family always equals humour even at its worst.

“Families are a concoction. They are a mixture of humour and love, but also the hardest thing you’ll ever have to go through is putting up with your family on a bad day,” he says.

“There is a dynamic that happens between adults when they go back home; they revert to their teenage selves, and no matter how mature you might be, once you are with siblings, you are 15 again.”

O’Keeffe and Mullane met at Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology almost 20 years ago, becoming fast friends and collaborators.

“Myself and Ed were in college together, and we set up a drama society,” said O’Keeffe.

“After that, we ran a theatre company, which was great, but there wasn’t much money to build a solid career, so we pivoted into commercials.

“On the side of making commercials, we were also making short films, which became our de facto film school where we could make mistakes and learn.”

In the summer of 2023, Mullane announced that he had access to a house in Sligo for a month in January, 2024. The house became the impetus for Horseshoe, a film built around a set of circumstances, as O’Keeffe explains.

“Ed assembled a cast from the actors that we worked with in theatre and through our short films, and we had access to a crew because nothing really shoots in January.

“So, we had a cast, crew, and house, but no story. We had to look at what we could do with this set of creative jigsaw pieces.

“I had written short scripts, but now I had a ticking clock. I had to write a story in a short period of time to a specific set of circumstances: a house and four main actors.”

O’Keeffe settled on the idea of the four characters being siblings and began exploring the primary reasons adult siblings come together.

“When you think about it, families come together at fraught times like when a parent figure dies or when there is a will involved.

“The house seemed like a great tool for a story about family drama amongst siblings.”

The location not only becomes a place that triggers the sibling’s memories and emotions, but also a source of confrontation when the will is read.

The four siblings are played by Carolyn Bracken, Jed Murray, Neill Fleming, and Eric O’Brien. The four actors had all worked together previously, and O’Keeffe says their shorthand allowed them to create a familial dynamic.

“We didn’t have the capacity to rehearse time wise, but they all know each other and have worked together before. Their having a shorthand allowed us to get into a dynamic quickly.

“They were a creative family first. If someone had an idea, there was space to workshop it and see if we could incorporate it into the film.

“In lieu of us having any rehearsal time or a long script development process, with each draft, we’d convene on Zoom with the cast, so then when we got on to set, there was already a creative connection.”

Throughout the film, the siblings have conversations with their deceased father, played by renowned actor Lalor Roddy. O’Keeffe says he and Mullane were amazed that Roddy agreed to be in the film.

“Lalor is a stalwart of the Irish screen and stage, and we were nervous because we are an emergent, scrappy sort of production, and here we were asking this esteemed actor to plant himself on the side of a mountain in Sligo in January,” he said.

“We had no idea how that would go. As soon as he landed down, he was engaged with the story, the script, and the character in a profoundly deep way. The electricity between him and who he’s acting opposite is palpable.

“Lalor brought such a level of engagement that it had the knock-on effect of raising the bar across the entire production.”

The film has played at festivals worldwide, and O’Keeffe says the response has been incredible.

“The humour is idiosyncratically Irish, but families are universal. Siblings are universal.

“Everybody has a family, whether it’s absent or present, for better or worse, of different shapes, sizes, and international audiences have picked up the universal resonance.”

The film-maker hopes to film in his native Cork some day soon and says he “brings Cork wherever he goes”. For now, he hopes audiences watch Horseshoe and connect with it.

“I hope they find it funny and heartwarming, because that’s the thing about families, you can’t, nor should you separate the rough from the smooth.

“Families are funny and sad, and that is inescapable. Coming to see Horseshoe, I hope you recognise some of your own family traits.

“We all come from similar backgrounds; you can think that your own family is crazy and that they’re the only ones, but don’t worry about it, every family is mad and that’s a good thing.”

Horseshoe opens in cinemas on December 5. Cert: 15a