We Beg To Differ
2024 · 13m · UK
Directed by Ruairí Bradley
Genres: documentary
Tones: contemplative, tender
In Northern Ireland's underground 'diffing' car community, enthusiasts find solace in their passion while navigating personal struggles on and off the road.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Car culture docs are a dime a dozen, but 'diffing' as a frame for existential solace in post-conflict Northern Ireland? That's the kind of specificity that makes you recalibrate what you thought you knew about genre.
Bradley's restraint is the film's formal grammar—the contemplative pacing and tender eye situate this squarely in the observational documentary tradition while resisting sentimentality about place and passion.
The decision to let the engine noise and the silence between conversations carry the emotional weight instead of overlaying score or voiceover is what transforms what could be ethnographic observation into something that feels like witnessing.
Reviews
Bradley approaches the community with an inquisitive, unjudgmental gaze. We Beg To Differ is a worthy cinematic excursion into a world of risk-takers, enamoured with their dangerous hobby.
Festivals
- Galway Film Fleadh 2024, Best Short Documentary
- PÖFF Shorts 2024, Best New Talent
- SXSW 2025
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Future Frames) 2025
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2025, Special Mention, International Student Jury
- Hot Docs 2025
- DOC NYC 2025