Facedown - Bondiwood 2

2023 95 mins M 15+

Synopsis: 
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 police 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.

Notes:
FACEDOWN caused a furore in Ireland when it hit cinemas and later broadcast nationally to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the kidnapping.  The re-examination of history is a painful process and one that is happening not just in Ireland.  The fine line between freedom fighter and sociopath has become blurred and FACEDOWN is a provocative addition to the debate.  Emmy Award winning Director Gerry Gregg’s fine handling of the subject matter and the desire of Thomas Niedermayer’s granddaughters to break the cycle of pain that has damaged their family is inspirational.

Reviews: 
"A powerful, haunting film about how a single violent act can devastate an entire family down through successive generations, Face Down makes for compulsive viewing.” ★★★★☆ The Irish Examiner

‘I went to see the film with a friend. We both cried throughout. She lives four minutes from where Thomas Niedermayer was buried ... but she had never heard of the case. She can't get it out of her head now [and] we left the cinema stunned.’ Mairia Cahill, Sunday Independent.