Face Down

'We both cried throughout. She lives four minutes from where Thomas Niedermayer was buried ... but she had never heard of the case. She can't get it out of her head now [and] we left the cinema stunned.' (For the documentary.)

* Sunday Independent *

Review for The Killing of Thomas Niedermayer (2019)

'David Blake Knox's non-fiction work is a lie detector for the post-Troubles era ... Niedermayer becomes, in Blake Knox's clear yet deceptively subtle argument, a perfect test case.'

-- Ed O'Loughlin * The Irish Times *

Review for The Killing of Thomas Niedermayer (2019)

'A rigorous and compelling historical study.'

* Dublin Review of Books *

Review for The Killing of Thomas Niedermayer (2019)

'A consistently thought-provoking read... impressively researched and morally clear-sighted.'

* The Sunday Business Post *

Review for The Killing of Thomas Niedermayer (2019)

'This is no refresher course in Irish history. Blake Knox has the ability to write this non-fiction book like a novel.'

* The Examiner *

Review for Face Down (documentary film)

'Gripping, chilling, properly enraging...The film digs up some still-startling horrors, but it also restores fleshed-out humanity to a decent man.' ****

-- Donald Clarke * The Irish Times *

Review for Face Down (documentary film, 2023)

'David Blake Knox and Gerry Gregg's fine documentary explores one of the Troubles' most shameful episodes.' ****

-- Paul Whittington * Irish Independent *

Review for Face Down (documentary film, 2023)

'Searingly powerful'

-- Joe Duffy * Liveline, RTE Radio One *

'The kidnapping and killing of Thomas Niedermayer by the Provisional IRA is given a family context and gripping historical background... the dignity of Niedermayer's granddaughters, their resilience and compassion, are deeply moving; the film skilfully shows how brutal acts rarely happen in a vacuum, but reverberate for many years' ***

-- Leaf Arbuthnot * The Guardian *

'A shocker...really worth people being reminded (of the Niedermayer story)... a documentary that lives up to it's one and half hours.' 4.5*

-- Ruth Barton * Arena, RTE Radio One *

'Tells the shocking story of the IRA kidnapping and killing in 1973 of Thomas Niedermayer, the German boss of the Belfast Grundig factory, where Catholics and Protestants worked together productively, and how this led remorselessly to four family suicides. I cannot praise it enough. We have an unembroidered, heartrending story showing the ghastly reality of terrorism, and the torment victims go through ... The contributions from commentators [are] superb.' (For the documentary.)

-- Ruth Dudley Edwards * Belfast News Letter *
'An overpowering experience. Many reports and documentaries and TV dramas and movies have been produced about the Troubles, so I hesitate to say it is the best - but it is certainly up among them.' (For the documentary.) * Belfast News Letter *