Talking about their film at the 2016 Belfast Film Festival post-screening Q&A, it was clear the directors Rachel Moriarty and Peter Murphy had worked very hard at developing the one clever little twisted idea they had for Traders into a coherent and credible feature film. They felt it was important to strengthen the characterisation and not let the idea run away with itself, and such is the nature of the central idea that It would have been very easy to allow that to happen, and all to easy to let the film become either a pale shadow of Fight Club, or indeed one that couldn’t sustain the implication of a deeper social reading of the subject.
Traders works then partly because the core idea itself is a good one that is well suited to dramatic tension – a series of underground fight-to-the death duels that begins to develop into twisted kind of pyramid scheme – but it carries greater weight because it is derived from real life. Not that there is any such underground network of murder and in operation on the fringes of society, but rather that Ireland has indeed come through a particularly bad economic crisis, the collapse of the Celtic Tiger creating a deep recession that has left many unemployed and forced to adjust to the harsh new reality of austerity.
The concept of ‘econicide’ is one noted consequence of the crisis, where people have taken their own lives after the loss of a their jobs, unable any longer to support their families, or just unable to let go of an extravagant lifestyle that is no longer sustainable. Contemplating the suicide of one of their former colleagues after their business goes bust, computer analyst Vernon (John Bradley) proposes a more practical approach to suicide to his friend Harry (Killian Scott). If you’re going to give it all up, when not take a chance in a 50/50 gamble with another person with nothing to lose but everything to gain by doubling their redundancy money or meagre savings?
You put all your money into a bag, go to a remote location and fight to the death.
Vernon has come up with a fight-to-the-death scheme known as ‘trading’, devising some nerdy but practical rules and putting it out there on the ‘dark web’ to look for other willing competitors. You put all your money into a green sports bag, meet another willing competitor, go to a remote location and fight to the death. The winner takes both bags, doubling a stake that will allow them to gamble on higher amounts with associated bigger risks. It turns out that there are plenty of people out there at the end of their tether willing to take a risk, not least of which is Vernon himself. Now living with his mother, not taken at all seriously by the girl next door, Vernon is going to be one of the first to put his new scheme to the test, and he’s willing to go up against his best friend Harry.
With the roots of the idea lying in the reality of the economic crisis in Ireland, the implication would seem to be that Traders is setting itself up as a social satire, but that isn’t necessarily the case. First and foremost the filmmakers have put all the emphasis on the on the basic storytelling mechanics of making a film that is accessible, credible and has the necessary dramatic tension to keep the viewer involved. If there’s truth in the characterisation and situations, then the social implications will speak for themselves.
To his credit, Richard Jobson was ahead of the game when he came to a previous Belfast Film Festival in 2009 to present his a similar concept in his film New Town Killers. Its human hunt game where bankers prey on the vulnerable and less fortunate also carried a commentary on social and class conflict that potentially had deeper psychological motivations. Jobson however was clearly too caught up in the mechanics of the chase film to really follow through and let the social message come through more clearly. Rachel Moriarty and Peter Murphy don’t make the same mistake.
Putting effort into characterisation where amoral behaviour and greed becomes second nature is only one aspect (and some strong contrasting performances from Killian Scott and John Bradley carry this balance off well), but what makes the difference here in Traders is that the writers develop this through to its natural conclusion. It’s not too long before ‘speculators’ and ‘investors’ step in for a piece of the action when there’s big money to be made. The legality or morality of the scheme is irrelevant, where the money comes from isn’t their concern, and the raising of the stakes will undoubtedly only result in a quick short-term yield while others pay the price when the ‘market’ crashes. That sounds like big business all right.
httpvh://youtu.be/XleAc2a_i0M