Legendary Irish Actor, Ciarán Hinds and Young Uptart Jude Hill Discuss Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Belfast‘ Now in Theaters.
Legendary Irish Actor, Ciarán Hinds and Young Upstart Jude Hill Discuss Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Belfast‘ Now in Theaters.
In 1998, Ziad Doueiri took us through the eyes of a teenager during the rise of the Lebanese Civil War in early 1970s between Christians and Muslim in West Beirut. Nearly a quarter of a century later, Kenneth Branagh revisits the a near parallel situation between Catholics and Protestants in 1960s Belfast.
Similar to West Beirut, Belfast is a semi-autobiographical film that finds hope, humor and family during the most tragic era of the 20th century.
What was most appealing to Belfast is that this is not just an Irish story. This not a United Kingdom story. This is an International story. Just like its mirrored film from nearly a quarter of a century ago in West Beirut, Belfast show the struggle of finding peace for your family while holding on to the desire or not uprooting your entire existence finding that comfort.
Belfe holds on to that sentiment of not cutting and running and the fear of being the immigrant in another country. I heard those arguments myself my entire life as my immigrant relatives have this longing for home that is no longer our ancestral homeland.
What Belfast does brilliantly is that it reminds us that there is hope during war. There is love, family and a time to laugh even while facing uncertainty and the dedication at the end of the film is more than enough to allow everyone who stayed or left their homelands justification in remembering their identities.
I was able to catch a few minutes with Ciarán Hinds and Jude Hill about the similarities between the two films, what it was like for Hinds to relive those days, even in a dramatized version and what Hill was able to learn from his counterparts who lived through it.
Belfast is in theaters now from Focus Features.
