First Take: Belfast - powerful, emotive, and potentially the film to beat this awards season

SYNOPSIS: A young boy and his working-class Belfast family experience the tumultuous late 1960s.

We love Ireland here at TheJackSmit HQ. They’ve given us great culture, great rugby players (as the first round of this year’s 6 Nations has proven), and they have also given us the legend that is Kenneth Branagh. It’s also a country that has a long, and very patchy history, something which Branagh has touched upon for what he describes as his most personal film yet - set at the start of The Troubles - and my word, has he knocked this one out of the park.

Taking the stylistic choices which have been showcased to full effect in his other directorial efforts over the years, Branagh is able to create a very faithful, and at times close to home depiction of life in Belfast during the first months of rioting between the Protestant and Catholic populations in the city, one which doesn’t drag out at all; that runtime of 98 minutes is absolutely spot on for a movie of this nature. There are also moments which feel like they’re lifted straight out of a French new wave film, as there are points that feel like they could become this generation’s equivalent to Francois Truffaut’s 1959 film The 400 Blows - a movie which prides itself on brutal realism as well as an inherent knowledge of the culture of the time, something which Branagh wanted to showcase in the script, as the Troubles are depicted in a way that hasn’t been seen at a 12 certificate before. Handling cinematography duties is Branagh’s regular DoP Haris Zambarloukos, who does a magnificent job behind the camera of the first major black and white movie to play mainstream cinemas since The Artist, and on music duties is Van Morrison, who provides a brand new track specifically for the film.

The standout star of this film is Jude Hill, who plays the lead character Buddy. This performance alone is going to get him some incredible roles in the future as he gets older, gains more experience, and ultimately win the hearts of cinemagoers everywhere- and with a cast that includes Dame Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan (who I am relieved to see taking roles like this after certain other franchises he appeared in), Caitriona Balfe, and the late John Sessions supporting him, what else can you say about a movie like this? It is not an easy watch by any stretch of the imagination, but if you’ve studied Irish cinema on your university course (like I did back in the day), this is gonna be a movie which gets you talking. That’s the sign of a damn good film.

THE VERDICT

Belfast has really grown on me since I returned from screen 3 earlier tonight - it is a truly powerful and harrowing depiction of one of Ireland’s darkest periods, and it is handled to perfection by a man who not only has this movie in cinemas, but also his latest blockbuster effort Death on the Nile too. Everything about this film just has class and dignity, which means, for the first time in 2022, we can drop this rating. Take a bow, Mr Branagh.

RATING: 5/5