Synopsis:

A portrait of rural life in County Derry, Northern Ireland, the film takes its title from Yeats: ''Too long a sacrifice/Can make a stone of the heart''. The farming residents of this area - both Protestant and Catholic - share their thoughts on the Troubles as Grigsby's meditative camera takes in the surroundings, a far cry from reportage centred around urban Belfast and violent extremes. The first of a trilogy of films by Grigsby about Northern Ireland, which was followed by The Silent War and then completed with last year's Rehearsals.