Say Nothing: the series we need to talk about (review)

Fascinating exploration of the Northern Irish conflict, through the true story of two sisters who join the IRA to liberate Belfast from the English occupiers.

“If I had grown up in the docklands of Belfast, a soldier of a faith, of a caste…“35 years ago, the British Michael Jones sang (within the trio Fredericks, Goldman, Jones) about the difficulty of choosing peace. And today, the new series Don't say anything – which arrives in France on Disney Plus – chronicles in a striking manner the Northern Irish conflict and the dramas which accompanied it. Or the Story of the Little Clover Island, told through the atypical journey of two sisters who actually existed.

Doulours and Marian Price are the daughters of a notorious IRA member. To the great dismay of their father, they refuse violence and prefer to peacefully express their anger against the English invader, who practices a form of segregation in Northern Ireland. But while the Catholic demonstrators are targeted by the Anglican part of the population, stoned until they bleed under the permissive gaze of the authorities, Dolours and Marian change. They understand that the voice of reason will never be heard and decide to take up arms to join the insurrection that will set Belfast ablaze during the 1970s and 1980s.

From the IRA's perspective, Don't say anything passionately and precisely describes “The Troubles”, a not-so-distant time when civil war raged in the heart of His Majesty's Kingdom. A time when the British military practiced torture and repression on their own population. A representation which did not fail to provoke a reaction across the Channel, with certain newspapers accusing the series of transforming IRA terrorists into romantic heroes or “cool and friendly beatniks”. The portrait of the nationalist leader Gerry Adams “presented as a sexy rock star” (according to the Times) has notably caused controversy. But that would be to summarize the series as what it is not. On the contrary. Ne dit Rien does not defend anyone, neither of one camp nor the other .

The adaptation of the novel by Patrick Radden Keefe – an American journalist – treats the conflict as the heartbreaking drama that it was, with its betrayals, its mourning and its outbursts of violence. The story begins with the shocking disappearance of Jean McConville, a single mother of 10 children, kidnapped and murdered by the Irish Republican Army in 1972, in Belfast, because she did not support “the cause” enough, understand. the reunification of the two Irelands (cut in two since 1921). Without taking shortcuts, Don't say anything shows all the facets of this cultural and religious war without ever losing the ignorant spectators that we are. Because the writing skilfully manages to handle genres, first telling the History of Ireland through the youthful euphoria of these two very committed sisters, before switching to the dark thriller then the disorienting political fable. Who are the victims? Who are the executioners? The series remains on a tightrope, without ever trivializing the suffering caused by some or exonerating the complicity of others. Ultimately, we must see Ne dit Rien as a story of resistance, the kind that tirelessly questions everyone's moral limits.

Say Nothing, in 9 episodes, to watch on Disney Plus on December 11, 2024.