IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands gets Cannes biopic premiere

A biopic on Northern Irish prisoner Bobby Sands who died after 66 days on hunger strike, part of an epic battle of wills with British premier Margaret Thatcher, got its world premiere Thursday in Cannes.


"Hunger" is likely to spark controversy in Britain where some commentators have already denounced it as a celebration of the martyrdom of a terrorist, but director Steve McQueen denied he portrays Sands as a hero.

"I'm not saying I agree or disagree with Bobby Sands, what I'm saying is I don't know," he told AFP. "The film is about people making decisions, bad or right decisions, and the consequences of that."

But he did say there were parallels between Northern Ireland's now-closed Maze prison in 1981 and what has happened more recently in the US detention centre in Guantanamo in Cuba and the US-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

"Hunger," starring Michael Fassbender, tells the story of the decision by Sands and other Irish Republican Army (IRA) inmates to go on hunger strike in the Maze to demand political prisoner status.

Sands had been jailed on firearms offences he was accused of committing as part of the IRA's deadly campaign to end British rule of Northern Ireland and unite the Protestant-dominated province with the largely Catholic Republic of Ireland.

He and his fellow inmates had previously carried out various actions to gain political status, including the notorious "dirty protest" in which they wore only blankets and smeared their own excrement on their cell walls.

But then British premier Thatcher refused to give in to their demands and the hunger protest began. Sands, who got elected to the British parliament during his strike, was the first of ten prisoners to die over the following weeks.

"Like in any situation ... you use the things that you've got at your disposal," said McQueen, 38, a London-born artist for whom "Hunger" is a first feature film. "In that case, it was the body. Excrement, urine, whatever, you use what you have, they were limited to that."

"Hunger" recounts the last weeks of Sands' life in graphic detail, showing the brutality of prison warders and the horrifically declining state of Sands' emaciated body.

The British viewpoint gets scant mention, but McQueen insists he is not dealing in simplistic stereotypes of hero or martyr, but seeking to make people "reflect on what went on in an * intelligent fashion."

The media coverage of the Maze hunger strike sparked a wave of sympathy around the world for Sands and his fellow strikers, whose deaths resulted in a surge of IRA activity and an escalation of violence in Northern Ireland.

A 1996 film on Sands' life, "Some Mother's Son," sparked controversy when it screened in Cannes in 1996.

McQueen is an official war artist in Britain and a winner of its prestigious Turner prize. He previously sparked controversy when he produced a series of postage stamps showing the faces of soldiers killed in the current Iraq conflict.

"Hunger" is showing in the Un Certain Regard competition in Cannes, a sidebar to the main race for the Palme d'Or.

 

Nice one, let me know when the download links appear.

 

Looking forward to see this one

 

Can't wait to see it...

Did you Know: In Tehran, the capital of Iran, the street in which the British embassy is, was named after Bobby Sands when he died...

 

cant wait to see it.

 

Cant wait for this sounds like its gonna be a good film.

 

whats the name of the street then

 

Bobby Sands Street or something mad like that. They named it so because the revolutionaries related to his plight.

 

In Tehran, Iran revolutionaries sympathising with Sands renamed the street on which the British embassy was located from Winston Churchill street to Bobby Sands street.[43] There have recently been claims that the British foreign secretary has pressured Iranian authorities to change the name, but this is denied.

Bobby Sands - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I can't wait to see this, though for some reason I doubt it will be given a general release in Britain.

An extract from Bobby Sands's prison diary, that's as relevant today with the situation in Iraq, Afghanistan & the Middle East, as it was 27 years ago!

 

looking forward to this one

 

'Artist-turned-director Steve McQueen has been awarded the prestigious Camera d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his movie debut Hunger.

Hunger details the final days of Irish Republican Army (Ira) hunger striker Bobby Sands - played by 300 star Michael Fassbender - who died aged 27 in Maze Prison in Belfast, Ireland in 1981.

McQueen was presented with the award - which honours first-time filmmakers - on Sunday by Easy Rider star Dennis Hopper.

 

Any news on when this will be available? No * take a cam into cannes and record it for us?

 

Hunger (2008/I) - Release dates

doesnt really say ....

 

Can't wait till it's out, it looks like a great film ....

 

cams are * m8..

 

looking forward to seeing this altough films like this usually get me a bit worked up, nice to see it getting recognition on a world scale.

victory to the blanket men!

 

Not all are mate, downloaded a few good ones in my time.

 

A quote from somebody who got to see the film in Cannes as they used to be in the prison...

The movie is a timely piece of film-making in this era of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. I have to admit my prejudice for the film because of my past as one of the prisoners depicted in the film. Long Kesh – or the Maze as the British infamously renamed it – was the Abu Ghraib of its day. One stark difference though: unlike Abu Ghraib, no one has ever been charged with the horror and relentless torture inflicted upon naked, defenceless prisoners in Long Kesh. The film is uncompromising in its examination of the events leading up to and beyond the Hunger Strike. Michael Fassbender is frighteningly real. But I will leave it up to the words of Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian to sum it up: 'Hunger is raw, powerful film-making and an urgent reminder of this uniquely ugly, tragic and dysfunctional period in British and Irish history…'

 

Sounds powerful, I look forward to seeing it.