Black '47

Black '47 follows Martin Feeney, an Irish soldier who deserts the British Army and returns to Connemara in 1847. He finds that famine, fever, evictions, and hanging have destroyed his family and village. Feeney turns his army skills against landlords, police, soldiers, and local helpers whom he blames for the deaths. Inspector Hannah, a former army comrade, leads the hunt for him with a young British officer and an Irish guide. The film has a bleak, cold, and very violent western tone.

The story shows starving families, burned homes, food leaving the country under guard, and poor Catholics being pressed to take soup after hearing Protestant teaching. It presents British rule, landlords, tax law, and local law enforcement as forces that protect land and power while ordinary people die. Feeney answers this abuse with private revenge, while the film shows that his violence cannot repair the wider disaster. Irish language, family loyalty, grief, and survival give the story a strong national and historical feeling, but the main drama stays with one man's revenge.