Belfast

Be good, son. And if you can't be good, be careful.

Belfast is based on Kenneth Branagh's upbringing in the city. In 1969 Buddy is nine-years-old and is living in a city which is almost in a state of civil war as Protestants and Catholics battle on the streets. It's interesting that whilst this is a film about the Troubles, it's about many other things as well. 

The conflict side of things is done in a very gentle way. This isn't a film where people are regularly beaten up and main characters are brutally killed. It manages to portray the threat of that without really going into the brutal reality of it. Indeed, the film is seen through a child's eyes and in that sense it's comparable to JoJo Rabbit as Buddy doesn't really understand the conflict nor even what being a Catholic really means. This approach is often a strong one because it's a way of showing how pointless and unnecessary the conflict is.

Much of the film though is about life as a nine-year-old. Buddy studies to do well in his tests in an attempt to get close to his childhood crush and is lured into stealing chocolate from the local shop. Meanwhile his parents are having serious financial difficulties with Pa (Jamie Dornan) forced to work in England as a joiner in order to provide for his family. It's also packed full of pop culture from the time with Westerns on TV, trips to the cinema to see the likes of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and an excellent Thunderbirds costume. 

The film is also about family and love. I really enjoy the way the family is portrayed here with Caitríona Balfe and Jamie Dornan great as Ma and Pa, showing a real love for each other whilst also having a realistic tension as they struggle to deal with situation they find themselves in. Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench are also great as Buddy's grandparents, full of humour but also once again full of love for each other and for their family. It would have been easy for the film to have a character take an ideological stance during the conflict but instead it has Pa reject calls to join the Protestants attacking the Catholics. I love his stance of not taking a side and there's a really lovely speech about how he would accept any good person no matter what their religion. 

The film is largely shown in black and white though not entirely. It opens with a drone shot of modern Belfast before going over a wall which leads to 1969- this is a reminder that this story is still hugely relevant to modern Northern Ireland. There are also moments when things that Buddy sees in colour like films and a stage play of A Christmas Carol are shown in colour and I thought this was really interesting, a way of showing how things seem from Buddy's perspective. 

Belfast doesn't feel like it contains anything especially new- it's like mixing JoJo Rabbit and Roma with the Troubles- but it comes together to be a really lovely film. It's a celebration of childhood, of love and of family which is just a lovely thing to watch.