Michael McCrea is an impressionable eighteen-year-old who lives with his grandfather Francis in a Dublin housing-estate. Michael’s life is changed dramatically when he is caught holding a bag of drugs for his friend’s older brother, and is sentenced to three months in prison. Inside, Michael is befriended by an older drug dealer, and is exposed to violence and intimidation.

Much of my early work in filmmaking involved community projects, covering themes of social disadvantage and education. Over the years, I have come across many young people already living with feelings of failure and defeat. Those who had left school early would often appear from their beds in the afternoon, and go to bed very late. They didn’t always occupy the same time-zone as their peers who were in school or working, and this further separated them. Many of these teenagers, mostly from disadvantaged communities, couldn’t really identify much meaning in their lives, and they punctuated their boredom with the thrill of mischief. I thought of a film that would highlight the vulnerability of many teenagers in Ireland who don’t necessarily want to be criminals, but who, due to the circumstances of their environment, could easily become part of the prison population. My initial impulse was simply to put that path up on the screen, through a story that would have the potential to reaffirm what many people know to be true, to enlighten others, and to make an impression on many – especially young people who might benefit from seeing lives familiar to their own in a big picture.

Frank Berry is a Dublin-born director whose career began with ten years of community filmmaking and television. This work led to his critically acclaimed Irish Film and Television Award nominated feature-documentary BALLYMUN LULLABY (2011), winner of the Directors Guild of America’s Directors Finders Award. His next film I USED TO LIVE HERE (2014), a drama that deals with suicide clusters among teenagers, won the Best First Feature Award at the Galway Film Fleadh 2014, and was nominated for three Irish Film and Television Awards including Best Film.

Filmography:
2017 - MICHAEL INSIDE
2014 - I USED TO LIVE HERE
2011 - BALLYMUN LULLABY, doc.