Jaw-dropping (and -smashing) doco. “A brilliantly brutal and intriguingly insightful look into the bare-knuckle fights staged between a series of Irish Traveller families as they prolong a long-running feud.” — Screendaily
An unsettling glimpse at the capability of humanity’s hatred toward one another.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2011
Knuckle 2011
This decade-spanning chronicle of bare-knuckle fighting between two feuding families in Ireland is like an anthropological study. In the centre of this fracas are the Quinn McDonagh and Joyce broods, hardened Travellers. Director Palmer began recording their bizarre and bloody fisticuffs in 1997 in an attempt to trace the conflict’s origin. Standing tall, bald and hard is unbeaten James Quinn McDonagh who, after pounding on countless Joyces, begins to question the cycle of violence. Younger bro Michael has grown up in James’ shadow and now wants a rematch with Paul Joyce, a monster of a man who beat him nine years earlier. The rituals before the skirmishes take on a religious fervour, in stark contrast to the juvenile am-cam movies the clans goad each other with. At its meaty core, Knuckle provides insight into the fatalism of their conflict but stays watchable through the sheer force of its hilarious and sad, larger-than-life personalities. — AT