BELFAST
****
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Screenwriter: Kenneth Branagh
Principal cast:
Jude Hill
Jamie Dornan
Caitríona Balfe
Lewis McAskie
Judi Dench
Ciarán Hinds
Country: UK
Classification: M
Runtime: 98 mins.
Australian release date: 3 February 2022.
Sir Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical new film, Belfast, will be particularly moving for anyone who has been uprooted from their familiar surroundings as a child to emigrate to a new country, either because of political upheaval or to seek a better life. The director admits that, “Belfast is the most personal film I have ever made. About a place and a people, I love.” Opening with sweeping, colourful footage of current-day Belfast, Branagh soon brings his audience back to earth and the black-and-white world of the Northern Irish city in 1969, as we re-live the day that changed the life of a nine-year-old Protestant boy. That day, the fifteenth of August, marked the commencement of ‘the Troubles’ in the child’s peaceful neighbourhood where, until then, Catholics and Protestants had lived happily cheek by jowl.
Buddy (a wonderfully vivacious Jude Hill), a charming lad who presumably represents the young Sir Ken, witnesses a violent attack in his street against the homes of Roman Catholics, instigated by hothead Protestant youths. This act upturns the harmonious atmosphere that existed until then, as depicted, if a little airily, in earlier scenes of dozens of children playing in the streets while their families and relatives call them in for dinner. Everybody knows everybody in these cramped rows of terrace houses and everybody knows Buddy. Branagh’s rose-coloured glasses are fitting, though, because the events we are witnessing are seen through Buddy’s eyes and naturally, being nine, he tends to view everything through a happy, optimistic lens. His loving Ma (Caitríona Balfe), who raises him and his older brother Will (Lewis McAskie), and Pa (Jamie Dornan), who works in England and comes home every other weekend, work hard to pay off their debts but are happy where they are until the violence erupts. At that point, Pa starts to think seriously about moving permanently to England, where he’s been offered a permanent job. Whenever Buddy needs advice, he seeks the counsel of his grandad, Pop (Ciarán Hinds), and there’s invariably a quip or two thrown in by Granny (Judy Dench). The grandparents’ loving relationship is, once again, seen a little mistily and there’s nary a harsh word spoken between the old couple but that’s memory for you. It often remembers the good before the bad and there’s nothing wrong with that. Matters come to a head when Pa is given an ultimatum by the leading Protestant heavy – either he supports them or he and his family will be considered supporters of the other side. There’s no middle ground.
Belfast tears at the heart strings and will bring back memories of people’s own migration stories, including many individuals in Australia, a country in which almost everyone is an immigrant or the offspring of one. As a character in the film says, “The Irish were born for leaving,” but they’re not the only race to have experienced a mass exodus from their home countries. Despite the grim facts of the story, Belfast is full of light and laughter and positively glows with warmth and the love of hearth and home. Buddy/Branagh’s precocious love of the performing arts is displayed whenever he is taken to a play or the cinema; those scenes are always in vivid colour (unless it’s a black-and-white film) and the excitement on the boy’s face is palpable. Jude Hill’s performance is brilliant – he lights up the screen every time he appears – and he’s surrounded by the best supporting actors one could ask for. Dornan and Balfe, Hinds and Dench, plus the large cast of players in small but crucial roles, bring a kind of heightened reality to Branagh’s marvellous script. A little over the top? Yes, but that’s by design and it works well. Throw in a soundtrack predominantly made up of songs from that other Belfast boy, Van Morrison, and you’ve got a nostalgic look back to ‘the Troubles.’ Belfast shows that even in the darkest of times, there is light to be found.
Screenwriter: Kenneth Branagh
Principal cast:
Jude Hill
Jamie Dornan
Caitríona Balfe
Lewis McAskie
Judi Dench
Ciarán Hinds
Country: UK
Classification: M
Runtime: 98 mins.
Australian release date: 3 February 2022.
Sir Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical new film, Belfast, will be particularly moving for anyone who has been uprooted from their familiar surroundings as a child to emigrate to a new country, either because of political upheaval or to seek a better life. The director admits that, “Belfast is the most personal film I have ever made. About a place and a people, I love.” Opening with sweeping, colourful footage of current-day Belfast, Branagh soon brings his audience back to earth and the black-and-white world of the Northern Irish city in 1969, as we re-live the day that changed the life of a nine-year-old Protestant boy. That day, the fifteenth of August, marked the commencement of ‘the Troubles’ in the child’s peaceful neighbourhood where, until then, Catholics and Protestants had lived happily cheek by jowl.
Buddy (a wonderfully vivacious Jude Hill), a charming lad who presumably represents the young Sir Ken, witnesses a violent attack in his street against the homes of Roman Catholics, instigated by hothead Protestant youths. This act upturns the harmonious atmosphere that existed until then, as depicted, if a little airily, in earlier scenes of dozens of children playing in the streets while their families and relatives call them in for dinner. Everybody knows everybody in these cramped rows of terrace houses and everybody knows Buddy. Branagh’s rose-coloured glasses are fitting, though, because the events we are witnessing are seen through Buddy’s eyes and naturally, being nine, he tends to view everything through a happy, optimistic lens. His loving Ma (Caitríona Balfe), who raises him and his older brother Will (Lewis McAskie), and Pa (Jamie Dornan), who works in England and comes home every other weekend, work hard to pay off their debts but are happy where they are until the violence erupts. At that point, Pa starts to think seriously about moving permanently to England, where he’s been offered a permanent job. Whenever Buddy needs advice, he seeks the counsel of his grandad, Pop (Ciarán Hinds), and there’s invariably a quip or two thrown in by Granny (Judy Dench). The grandparents’ loving relationship is, once again, seen a little mistily and there’s nary a harsh word spoken between the old couple but that’s memory for you. It often remembers the good before the bad and there’s nothing wrong with that. Matters come to a head when Pa is given an ultimatum by the leading Protestant heavy – either he supports them or he and his family will be considered supporters of the other side. There’s no middle ground.
Belfast tears at the heart strings and will bring back memories of people’s own migration stories, including many individuals in Australia, a country in which almost everyone is an immigrant or the offspring of one. As a character in the film says, “The Irish were born for leaving,” but they’re not the only race to have experienced a mass exodus from their home countries. Despite the grim facts of the story, Belfast is full of light and laughter and positively glows with warmth and the love of hearth and home. Buddy/Branagh’s precocious love of the performing arts is displayed whenever he is taken to a play or the cinema; those scenes are always in vivid colour (unless it’s a black-and-white film) and the excitement on the boy’s face is palpable. Jude Hill’s performance is brilliant – he lights up the screen every time he appears – and he’s surrounded by the best supporting actors one could ask for. Dornan and Balfe, Hinds and Dench, plus the large cast of players in small but crucial roles, bring a kind of heightened reality to Branagh’s marvellous script. A little over the top? Yes, but that’s by design and it works well. Throw in a soundtrack predominantly made up of songs from that other Belfast boy, Van Morrison, and you’ve got a nostalgic look back to ‘the Troubles.’ Belfast shows that even in the darkest of times, there is light to be found.