Keepers of the Flame review – a dense, reverential dip into Ireland's past

History unfolds in a documentary that explores personal stories from the country’s military pension archives

Fittingly for a film that draws deeply from the some of the thousands of documents kept in a state-owned collection of papers and correspondence, in this case the Irish military pension archives, this documentary is a dense, wordy wodge of history: significant, hefty and worthwhile, but scratchy and a little dry in storytelling terms.

The archives hold endless stacks of brown cardboard boxes – photographed here with the kind of awestruck reverence and tendresse that recalls the way Josef von Sternberg shot Marlene Dietrich – that contain applications requesting pensions for soldiers who fought between the Easter uprising of 1916 through to the end of the Irish civil war. A big chunk of correspondence came from the families of those who fought and died. Extracts are read by a mix of actors and applicants’ descendants, the latter often expanding on what they remember of family history. Illustrative and picturesque visuals are provided by archive footage, vintage dramatic recreations from TV, and some rather pretty drone footage of the ocean and rural landscapes.

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