Hunger

In the notorious Maze prison, IRA man Bobby Sands comes to the conclusion that his body is the sole remaining domain where he can stay true to his beliefs. Behind concrete walls smeared with feces, Sand decides that the only way to resist is to die. In 1981, he begins the slow, painful suicide of a 66-day long hunger strike.

With a debut that stunned the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, winning the Golden Camera award, director Steve McQueen depicts the true final days of an urban guerilla martyr. The gradual breakdown of the body is pictured in excruciating detail, adding infernal, deafening qualities to the slow, silent death of self-starvation. To a large extent devoid of dialogue, the film is narrated with an almost draconian minimalism, efficiently contrasting long stretches of suppressed calm with violent episodes.

In accordance with the zeitgeist, Prime Minister Thatcher is ghostly omnipresent, drifting in and out of the soundtrack. Juxtaposed with the ever-hardening resilience of the prisoners, she comes to symbolize the arrogance of absolute power, fuelling fatal extremism.

Premiere Status
Nordic Premiere: Cast
Liam Cunningham, Michael Fassbender, Stuart Graham: Producer
Robin Gutch, Laura Hastings-Smith: Script
Enda Walsh, Steve Mcqueen: Cinematography
Sean Bobbitt: Music
Leo Abrahams, David Holmes: Spoken language
English