Beneath The Cedar Tree

Unable to free themselves from a personal trauma six years past, one that has come back to haunt them due to an outrageous miscarriage of justice, Brendan and Irene Gogarty find themselves amongst a planeload of Holy Joes bound for Medjugorje. A pair of agnostics, most unlikely pilgrims, they’re taking a punt on divine deliverance. Medjugorje in 1995 is a spiritual shrine in the middle of a warzone, a ready-made getaway with Vegas-type odds on salvation, but the sacred hill does not deliver.

Overcome with unrealistic hopes for some heavenly sign, Irene has a meltdown on Cross Mountain. Things will never be the same. The couple head for the coast and witness first-hand a country ravaged by conflict before they reach the azure calm of the Adriatic.

Over lazy days in a fishing village the Gogartys begin to unwind. On a whim Brendan decides to buy an old cottage – dubbed the villa – as a gift for Irene. It is perfect except that it is occupied by the auctioneer’s pregnant cousin, Anja, and her severely war-damaged husband, Damir.