The morose dissatisfaction of Ireland’s newly impoverished Celtic tigers is satirised in this interesting first feature from writer-directors Rachel Moriarty and Peter Murphy. It’s a violent futurist thriller with hints of David Fincher’s Fight Club and Géla Babluani’s cult Russian-roulette nightmare 13 (Tzameti). Killian Scott plays Harry, a young guy who has grown used to the good life in the financial world; being laid off post-slump introduced him to the humiliation of not having much money. But his cringing beta-male friend Vernon (John Bradley) has invented an internet game called Trading; individuals who can’t bear the thought of not being rich must sell everything, put all their money in a bag and challenge other individuals to meet on a patch of wasteground for a bareknuckle fight to the death; the winner buries the loser and takes all the cash. It’s a game that fuses the aggression and triumphalism of their lost financial careers with the secretive euphoria of something like web-based casual sex. I think the use of voiceover is a flaw in Traders – reminiscent of 90s geezer Britfilms. But this is an ingenious and macabre debut.
