Film Synopsis: The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid

A soft-spoken Irish cattle farmer embarks on a reluctant battle for land rights in this beguiling David and Goliath tale.

Thomas Reid lives a solitary, frugal life tending to the livestock on his chaotic 17th-century Kildare farm. When his unlikely neighbours, U.S. microchip manufacturer Intel, set their sights on Reid’s land to facilitate their expansion, Reid refuses to sell. Faced with a compulsory purchase order on his ancestral home, Reid takes his fight against eviction all the way to the High Court – proving a formidable opponent to the combined forces of Ireland’s aggressively pro-business policies and a giant multinational’s legal team.

Echoing similar battles taking place across the world (including Scotland), this lyrical documentary captures a fundamental clash between a rural attachment to the land and a very narrow vision of economic development.