General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

In the Land of Saints and Sinners

In the Land of Saints and Sinners is a 2023 Irish action thriller directed by Robert Lorenz, written by Mark Michael McNally and Terry Loane, and starring Liam Neeson as Finbar Murphy, a retired contract killer in a remote Donegal village whose quiet life is disrupted by IRA fugitives from Belfast.¹^•² The film premiered in the Orizzonti Extra section at the 2023 Venice Film Festival and received a United States wide theatrical release in March 2024 through Samuel Goldwyn Films.¹^•³

Key fact	Detail
Director / writers	Robert Lorenz; screenplay by Mark Michael McNally and Terry Loane¹
Runtime / rating	106 minutes; rated R for violence and language throughout¹^•⁴
Setting	Glencolmcille, a coastal town in County Donegal, Ireland, in 1974 during the Troubles²
Lead cast	Liam Neeson (Finbar Murphy), Kerry Condon (Doireann McCann), Ciarán Hinds, Jack Gleeson, Colm Meaney, Sarah Greene¹
Festival	Venice 2023, Orizzonti Extra¹
Release	Earliest release October 6, 2023 (Norway); US wide release March 29, 2024; worldwide gross $3,629,978³
Reception	83% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 80 reviews; Metascore 60 on Metacritic from 14 critics⁴^•⁵

Spoilers

Plot

The story is set in 1974, during the Troubles, the conflict in Northern Ireland. Four IRA members bomb a Belfast pub, killing six people, three of them children. Doireann McCann, her brother Curtis, Conan, and Séamus then drive to Glencolmcille, a coastal town in County Donegal, to lie low. While the other three lodge in a shack, Curtis takes up residence with Sinéad, the widowed sister-in-law who runs the village pub, together with her young daughter Moya.²

When Finbar Murphy returned from the Second World War, his wife had died, and he fell into a depressed, drink-fueled state. Robert McQue, who ran crime locally, rescued him from that downward spiral and employed his wartime fighting skills by hiring him as a hired gunman. Finbar now poses as a book-seller and is friendly with the Garda officer Vinnie and his neighbor Rita.² When the fugitives arrive, led by the ruthless Doireann, Finbar discovers that one of them has been abusing a local young girl, and he is drawn into a cat-and-mouse game that forces him to choose between exposing his secret identity and defending his friends and neighbors.¹

A recurring image ties the story together: Finbar has a habit of planting trees on the graves of his victims, and shots that zoom out to reveal the wider forest speak to the number of people who died in that era.⁶

Cast and production

The cast is largely Irish. Liam Neeson plays Finbar Murphy, Kerry Condon plays Doireann McCann, Ciarán Hinds plays Vincent O'Shea, Jack Gleeson plays Kevin Lynch, Colm Meaney plays Robert McQue, and Sarah Greene plays Sinéad Dougan; the ensemble also includes Desmond Eastwood, Conor MacNeill, Seamus O'Hara, and Niamh Cusack.²^•⁵ Gleeson's Kevin is a young, up-and-coming assassin who follows Finbar around trying to learn from him, with the older man's grudging tolerance gradually turning into affection.⁶

Behind the camera, Lorenz worked with cinematographer Tom Stern, editor Jeremiah O'Driscoll, and a score by the siblings Diego, Nora, and Lionel Vincent Baldenweg. The film was produced by Philip Lee and Markus Barmettler for Facing East Entertainment, with production companies including London Town Films, Merlin Films, Saga Film, and Bleiberg Entertainment.¹^•⁴ Lorenz is a longtime collaborator of Clint Eastwood, having produced films including Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, and American Sniper, and reviewers noted the film's debt to the Western genre.⁷

Release and box office

The film's earliest release was October 6, 2023 in Norway, followed by openings in the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Russia/CIS, and other territories. Its United States wide release came on March 29, 2024 through The Samuel Goldwyn Company, with a domestic opening of $1,034,132 and a domestic gross of $2,258,795, about 62 percent of the worldwide total of $3,629,978.³ It later streamed on Netflix and Prime Video.⁴

Reception

Critical response was moderately positive. The Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus calls it "well-written and classically constructed" and "one of the better action thrillers Liam Neeson's made in recent years," with an 83 percent Tomatometer from 80 reviews and a 74 percent audience score.⁴ Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 60, based on 14 critic reviews, of which eight were positive and six mixed, with none negative.⁵

Reviewers singled out the performances. Katie Walsh of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Condon is "utterly captivating as a brutal villain" and that the performances elevate an "enjoyably pulpy thriller."⁵ Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle credited the acting, the setting, and the period feel with making it one of Neeson's best movies of the preceding few years.⁵ Recurring criticisms concerned the script: The Irish Times described Colm Meaney, Niamh Cusack, and Jack Gleeson as "a parade of wasted ideas and characters who needed far more screen time and development," while The National found the plot predictable and needlessly convoluted.⁴^•⁸ Several critics noted that the Troubles serve mainly as background rather than political context, with the film playing instead as a Western transposed to 1970s Donegal.⁹^•¹⁰

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026