Laurence Durkin

Ascension Island lay barren for a million years, until it was 'terraformed' by Victorian naturalists into a tropical paradise. Today scientists return in search of answers, as humans begin the process of geo-engineering the entire planet.

The Colorado River is drying up. Reservoirs are falling to record lows and drought ravages the borderlands of the United States and Mexico. The heavily engineered water systems of the American Southwest buckle under the strain of an expanding population. Life for those on the fringes begins to unravel.

Undertow looks at the Irish system of asylum seeker accommodation ('direct provision') through the stories of three former refugees. The film attempts to contextualise their years of confinement in the system, within Ireland's own complex history of migration and mass incarceration.

Ascension Island lay barren for a million years, until it was 'terraformed' by Victorian naturalists into a tropical paradise. Today scientists return in search of answers, as humans begin the process of geo-engineering the entire planet.

The Colorado River is drying up. Reservoirs are falling to record lows and drought ravages the borderlands of the United States and Mexico. The heavily engineered water systems of the American Southwest buckle under the strain of an expanding population. Life for those on the fringes begins to unravel.

Undertow looks at the Irish system of asylum seeker accommodation ('direct provision') through the stories of three former refugees. The film attempts to contextualise their years of confinement in the system, within Ireland's own complex history of migration and mass incarceration.