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Movies with 'the Troubles' as a theme (1968 to present)
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Page Compiled: Martin Melaugh, and Fionnuala McKenna (1996-2000)
Material is added to this site on a regular basis - information on this page may change
Movies with 'the Troubles' in Northern Ireland as a theme (1968 - Present)
The following list is in alphabetical order by title of film (click or scroll for details):
| '71 | A Further Gesture (The Break) | A Prayer for the Dying | A Sense of Loss | Acceptable Levels | An Everlasting Piece | Angel | Belfast | Bloody Sunday | Blown Away | Bogwoman | Cal | Fifty Dead Men Walking | Five Minutes of Heaven | Giro City | H3 | Harry's Game | Hennessy | Hidden Agenda | High Boot Benny | Hostage | Hunger | In the Name of the Father | Lost Lives | Love Lies Bleeding | Maeve | Mickybo and Me | Nothing Personal | Omagh | Patriot Games | Patriots | Resurrection Man | Silent Grace | Some Mother's Son | Sunday | The Boxer | The Crying Game | The Devil's Own | The Eliminator | The Foreigner | The Jackal | The Long Good Friday | The Outsider | The Violent Enemy | This is the Sea | Titanic Town |
Movies about earlier 'Troubles' in Ireland (pre-1968)
List of some source materials
If you know of any other movies which you feel should be listed please email the CAIN site
| Title: |
'71 |
| Country of Origin: |
Britain |
| Year of Production: |
2014 (Release date: 10 October 2014) |
| Running Time: |
99 min |
| Director: |
Yann Demange |
| Producer: | |
| Screenplay/Script: |
Gregory Burke (screenplay) |
| Cast: |
Jack O'Connell, Paul Anderson, Sam Reid, Richard Dormer, Sean Harris, Charlie Murphy, Adam Nagaitis, Sam Hazeldine, |
| Location: |
Filmed in England: Sheffield; Liverpool; Blackburn. |
| Production Company: |
Crab Apple Films; Protagonist Pictures (sales agent); Warp Films. |
| Abstract: |
'A young British soldier is accidentally abandoned by his unit following a terrifying riot on the streets of Belfast in 1971. Unable to tell friend from foe, the raw recruit must survive the night alone and find his way to safety through a disorienting, alien and deadly landscape'.
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| Title: | A Further Gesture (The Break) |
| Country of Origin: | Ireland / Britain / Germany |
| Year of Production: | 1996 |
| Running Time: | 96 min |
| Director: | Robert Dornhelm |
| Producer: | Chris Curling |
| Screenplay/Script: | Ronan Bennet |
| Cast: | Stephen Rea, Alfred Molina, Rosana Pastor, Brendan Gleeson, Pruit Taylor Vince, Maria Doyle Kennedy |
| Location: | New York, Blessington Lakes, Ireland |
| Production Company: | Channel 4 Television Corporation |
| Abstract: | Rea, an imprisoned IRA man, takes part in a violent jailbreak from the Maze prison. He is smuggled out to New York where he works as a dishwasher. He becomes friendly with a South American porter and becomes romantically involved with the man's sister. Both brother and sister are part of a revolutionary cell, dedicated to the overthrow of the repressive regime in their country, but lack any basic military training. Rea trains them and draws up a successful assassination plan for them, helps them execute it and then attempts to escape with them. However, the authorities have been tailing him.
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| Title: | A Prayer for the Dying |
| Country of Origin: |
Britain |
| Year of Production: |
1988 |
| Running Time: | 108 mins
|
| Director: | Mike Hodges
|
| Producer: | Peter Snell
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
Edmund Ward, Martin Lynch |
| Cast: | Mickey Rourke, Bob Hoskins and Alan Bates
|
| Location: |
|
| Production Company: |
PFD Films; Goldwyn Entertainment Company |
| Abstract:
| Martin Fallon (Mickey Rourke) and two fellow IRA terrorists accidentally blow up a school bus instead of a British military vehicle. Fallon's friends escape, but he, devastated by the incident, turns his back on the Cause and escapes to London, where he hopes to find safe passage to the US. Instead, the IRA and the British police tail him, forcing him to depend on ruthless gangster Jack Meehan (Alan Bates), for a passport.
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| Title: | A Sense of Loss |
| Country of Origin: |
USA / Switzerland |
| Year of Production: |
1978 |
| Running Time: |
|
| Director: | Marcel Ophuls
|
| Producer: | Marcel Ophuls
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
|
| Cast: |
|
| Location: |
|
| Production Company: |
Cinema X; Société Suisse de Télévision; CineVest Productions; MaxPal Productions |
| Abstract:
| A "searing but balanced documentary about the never-ending conflict in Northern Ireland," by the director of The Sorrow and the Pity.
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| Title: | Acceptable Levels |
| Country of Origin: | Britain |
| Year of Production: | 1983 |
| Running Time: | 103 mins |
| Director: | John Davies |
| Producer: | Angela Topping |
| Screenplay/Script: | |
| Cast: | Kay Adshead, Andy Rashleigh, Patrick Higgins and Tracey Lynch |
| Location: | |
| Production Company: |
Frontroom Productions; Channel Four; Belfast Film Workshop |
| Abstract: | This study of a British TV crew interviewing a Belfast family in the war-strewn Catholic district focuses upon the death of a child hit by a stray plastic bullet fired by a British soldier. The chief reporter becomes politically involved in the incident, whilst her producer is apprehensive and, once back in London, makes sure that the most indicting footage is destroyed.
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| Title: | An Everlasting Piece |
| Country of Origin: | Ireland |
| Year of Production: | 2000 |
| Running Time: | 103 mins |
| Director: | Barry Levinson |
| Producer: | |
| Screenplay/Script: | Barry McEvoy |
| Cast: | Barry McEvoy (Colm); Brian F O'Byrne (George); Anna Friel; Billy Connolly (The Scalper); Pauline McLynn; Ruth McCabe |
| Location: | Belfast |
| Production Company: | |
| Abstract: |
A comedy about selling wigs in Belfast in the 1980s. Barry McEvoy plays Colm (a Catholic) who cuts hair in a mental hospital, where he meets 'The Scalper' (Billy Connolly), a crazed Scot, who ran a toupee monopoly in Northern Ireland before losing the plot and attacking his customers. Colm and his pal George (Brian F O'Byrne, who plays a Protestant) use The Scalper's contacts to take over the franchise but then a rival firm moves in and a sales battle ensues.
Barry McEvoy wrote the script based on stories his father told him about Belfast.
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| Title: | Angel |
| Country of Origin: | Ireland |
| Year of Production: | 1982 |
| Running Time: | 92 mins |
| Director: | Neil Jordan |
| Producer: | John Boorman |
| Screenplay/Script: | Neil Jordan |
| Cast: | Stephen Rea, Veronica Quilligan, Peter Caffrey, Honor Heffernan and Ray McAnally |
| Location: | Border counties of Ireland |
| Production Company: | Irish Film Board, Palace Pictures |
| Abstract: | Bleak drama of a saxophone player who witnesses his manager's murder. The film narrative occurs against the backdrop of the Troubles.
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| Title: | Belfast |
| Country of Origin: | United Kingdom |
| Year of Production: | 2021 (premiere 2 Sept 2021) |
| Running Time: | 97 mins |
| Director: | Kenneth Branagh |
| Producer: | Laura Berwick, Kenneth Branagh, Becca Kovacik, Tamar Thomas |
| Screenplay/Script: | Kenneth Branagh |
| Cast: | Caitríona Balfe, Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds, Colin Morgan, and Jude Hill. |
| Location: | Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Production Company: | Northern Ireland Screen; TKBC. |
|
Abstract: |
'Belfast is a 2021 British coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Kenneth Branagh. ... The film, which Branagh has described as his "most personal film", follows a young boy's childhood in Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the beginning of The Troubles in 1969.' (from Wikipedia)
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| Title: | Bloody Sunday |
| Country of Origin: | Britain / Ireland |
| Year of Production: | 2001 (first screened on ITV, 20 January 2002) |
| Running Time: | 120 mins |
| Director: | Paul Greengrass |
| Producer: | Mark Redhead and Jim Sheridan |
| Screenplay/Script: | Paul Greengrass |
| Cast: | James Nesbitt (Cooper); Tim Pigott-Smith (Ford); Declan Duddy (Donaghy); Nicholas Farrell (MacLellan); Gerard Crossan (McCann); Gerard McSorley (Lagan); Raymond Cullen (Daly). |
| Filming Location: | Derry, Northern Ireland; and Dublin, Republic of Ireland |
| Production Company: | Granada Films and Hell's Kitchen |
| Abstract: |
Bloody Sunday deals with the events that happened in Derry on 30 January 1972. During a civil rights march the British Army shot dead 13 civilian protesters and wounded another 14 people (one of whom died later in the year). The story was filmed in a documentary style that employed hand-held cameras throughout. The film deals with the 24 hour period of Bloody Sunday and thus does not cover the aftermath.
[The film was first shown on ITV (Britain) but also given a limited cinema release and also went straight to video.]
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| Title: | Blown Away |
| Country of Origin: | USA |
| Year of Production: | 1994 |
| Running Time: | 121 mins |
| Director: | Stephen Hopkins |
| Producer: | Lloyd Segan |
| Screenplay/Script: | Joe Batter and John Rice |
| Cast: | Jeff Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones |
| Location: | |
| Production Company: | Trilogy Entertainment Group |
| Abstract: | An Irish terrorist escapes from jail in Northern Ireland and goes to Boston seeking revenge on an ex-comrade who had also been a terrorist bomber but left the organisation, and now works in Boston as a bomb disposal expert.
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| Title: | Bogwoman |
| Country of Origin: |
Ireland |
| Year of Production: |
1997 (released 1999) |
| Running Time: | 78 mins |
| Director: | Tom Collins |
| Producer: | Martha O'Neill and Tom Collins |
| Screenplay/Script: | Tom Collins |
| Cast: | Rachael Dowling, Peter Mullan, Maria Mcdermottroe, Noelle Brown, Darren Mchugh, Seén Mcginley |
| Location: | Derry, Northern Ireland |
| Production Company: | ZDF (in association with ARTE), MAP.TV, Radio Telefis Éireann, British Film Institute |
| Abstract:
|
The movie is set in Derry during the period 1958 to 1969. It charts the experiences of a woman who moves to the city from Donegal as she copes with various personal and familiy pressures against the background of the emerging civil unrest and the redeployment of British troops into the area.
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| Title: | Cal |
| Country of Origin: |
Britain |
| Year of Production: |
1984 |
| Running Time: | 102 mins
|
| Director: | Pat O'Connor
|
| Producer: | Terry Clegg
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
Bernard MacLaverty |
| Cast: | Helen Mirren, John Lynch, Ray McAnally, Donal McCann, John Kavanagh, Steven Rimkus
|
| Location: |
|
| Production Company: |
Enigma Productions |
| Abstract:
| Based on Bernard MacLaverty's novel about a Catholic living in a Protestant neighbourhood in Northern Ireland. He had been involved in the murder of an RUC man, but later gets a job from the family of the dead officer, and begins an affair with the dead man's wife.
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| Title: | Fifty Dead Men Walking (aka: Man on the Run, USA - working title) |
| Country of Origin: |
UK / Canada |
| Year of Production: |
2008 |
| Running Time: |
mins |
| Director: |
Karl Skogland |
| Producer: |
Peter La Terriere |
| Screenplay/Script: |
Karl Skogland |
| Cast: |
Jim Sturgess, Rose McGowan, Ben Kingsley, Kevin Zegers, Nathalie Press, Nick Dunning, William Houston, Gavin O'Connor, Nathan Hughes, Kris Edlund, |
| Location: |
Ardglass, Killough, Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Production Company: |
Brightlight Pictures |
| Abstract:
|
Based on the book
Fifty Dead men Walking by Martin McGartland (2001) the film tells the story of McGartland's recruitment by the RUC Special Branch as a paid informer on the IRA.
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| Title: |
Five Minutes of Heaven |
| Country of Origin: |
UK? |
| Year of Production: |
2008? |
| Running Time: |
90 mins? |
| Director: |
Oliver Hirschbiegel |
| Producer: |
Eoin O'Callaghan |
| Screenplay/Script: |
Guy Hibbert |
| Cast: |
Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt, Anamaria Marinca |
| Location: |
Northern Ireland |
| Production Company: |
A Big Fish/Ruby Films Production for BBC Northern Ireland, Pathé, Northern Ireland Screen, Element Pictures and the Irish Film Board. |
| Abstract:
|
Dramatises the story Alistair Little, a UVF member, who spent 13 years in jail for killing Jim Griffin (21) from Lurgan on 29 October 1975. Jim's 11-year-old brother Joe witnessed the killing. Most of the drama takes place during an attempted reconcilliation 33 years later. Liam Neeson plays Alistair Little and James Nesbitt plays Joe Griffin.
The film won two awards at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival - Recipient of the World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic and the World Cinema Screenwriting Award.
The film received UK and Irish premieres in Belfast and Dublin during February 2009. The film is due to be broadcast on BBC2 in March 2009.
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| Title: | Giro City |
| Country of Origin: |
Britain |
| Year of Production: |
1982 |
| Running Time: | 102 mins
|
| Director: | Karl Francis
|
| Producer: | Sophie Balhetchet and David Payne
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
Karl Francis |
| Cast: | Glenda Jackson, Jon Finch, Kenneth Colley, James Donnelly (II), Karen Archer
|
| Location: |
|
| Production Company: |
Channel Four |
| Abstract:
| Jackson and Finch play a filmmaker and a reporter, who set out to investigate the Irish Republican Army.
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| Title: | H3 |
| Country of Origin: | Britain |
| Year of Production: | 2001 |
| Running Time: | 89 mins |
| Director: | Les Blair |
| Producer: | James Flynn and Juanita Wilson |
| Screenplay/Script: | Lawrence McKeon and Brian Campbell |
| Cast: | Brendan Mackey (Seamus); Dean Lennox Kelly (Ciaran); Tony Devlin (Madra); Kevin Elliot (Liam); Mark O'Halloran (Bobby Sands); Mark McCrory (Morton) |
| Location: | |
| Production Company: | Metropolitan Films |
| Abstract: |
An account of the 1981 Republican Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. The title 'H3' refers to one of the 'H-blocks' inside the prison used to house the Republican prisoners. |
| Web Site: | http://www.h3themovie.com/
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| Title: | Harry's Game |
| Country of Origin: | Britain |
| Year of Production: | 1982 |
| Running Time: | 180 mins |
| Director: | Lawrence Gordon Clark |
| Producer: | |
| Screenplay/Script: | |
| Cast: | Gil Brailey, Ray Lonnen, Derek Thompson (Billy) Christopher Whitehouse and Benjamin Whitrow |
| Location: | |
| Production Company: | |
| Abstract: | Harry is an undercover agent for the British army sent to Northern Ireland to infiltrate the IRA and find (and terminate) the assassin of a British Cabinet Minister. Harry is alone, the army hasn't been told he is being put in place, his wife is fed up with him and his job, and his one new friend, an Irish woman who falls for him, will be consumed by his relentless search for the assassin.
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| Title: | Hennessy |
| Country of Origin: |
Britain |
| Year of Production: |
1975 |
| Running Time: | 104 mins
|
| Director: | Don Sharp
|
| Producer: | Peter Snell
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
John Gay |
| Cast: | Rod Steiger, Lee Remick, Richard Johnson (I) and Trevor Howard
|
| Location: |
|
| Production Company: |
Hennessy Film Productions; American International Productions |
| Abstract:
| Set in the Seventies, Hennessy is a Irishman who believes in peace, but who has had connections to the IRA. Hennessy's family is killed by a bomb, and he plots revenge, setting out to assassinate Queen Elizabeth of England.
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| Title: | Hidden Agenda |
| Country of Origin: |
Britain |
| Year of Production: |
1990 |
| Running Time: | 108 mins
|
| Director: | Ken Loach
|
| Producer: | Eric Fellner and Rebecca O'Brien
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
Jim Allen |
| Cast: | Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif, Brian Cox, Mai Zetterling
|
| Location: |
|
| Production Company: |
Initial Film and Television; Hemdale Holdings |
| Abstract:
| Based on an amalgam of real scandals, the film is a fictionalised account of official corruption in Northern Ireland (set in 1980).
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| Title: | High Boot Benny |
| Country of Origin: |
Ireland |
| Year of Production: |
1993 |
| Running Time: | 82 mins
|
| Director: | Joe Comerford
|
| Producer: | David Kelly
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
Joe Comerford |
| Cast: | Marc O'Shea, Frances Tomelty and Alan Devlin
|
| Location: |
|
| Production Company: |
Sandy Films |
| Abstract:
| Tells the story of a delinquent boy, Benny, who had to leave Northern Ireland and escapes across the border. He attends school in the Republic, and here finds the murdered body of the caretaker who had been a police informer. Benny is then later suspected of informing by the IRA.
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| Title: | Hostage |
| Country of Origin: | Britain |
| Year of Production: | 1984 |
| Running Time: | 40 mins |
| Director: | Aisling Walsh |
| Producer: | |
| Screenplay/Script: | Aisling Walsh |
| Cast: | Veronica Quilligan, Alan Devlin, Seamus Healy. |
| Location: | |
| Production Company: | National Film and Television School |
| Abstract: | Against the backdrop of the bombing campaign in Britain and the Northern Ireland Hunger Strike, a young woman joins a terrorist operation which takes three people hostage. Over the days of their captivity, she questions her own involvement and the history of Ireland which has brought her to this point.
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| Title: | Hunger |
| Country of Origin: |
Britain / Ireland |
| Year of Production: |
2008 |
| Running Time: |
93mins |
| Director: | Steve McQueen |
| Producer: |
Laura Hastings-Smith, Robin Gutch. (Executive producers: Jan Younghusband, Peter Carlton, Linda James, Edmund Coulthard, Iain Canning.) |
| Screenplay/Script: |
Co-written by Steve McQueen and Irish playwright Enda Walsh |
| Cast: |
Michael Fassbender, Stuart Graham, Brian Milligan, Liam McMahon, Helena Bereen, Larry Cowan, Liam Cunningham. |
| Location: | |
| Production Company: | A Blast! Films production for Film4 / Channel 4, in association with Northern Ireland Screen, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, and the Wales Creative IP Fund. |
| Abstract: |
 The film depicts the Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison in 1981 and in particular the role of the leader of the strike Bobby Sands.
Sands is played by Michael Fassbender who went on a medically-supervised diet to portray the final weeks of the 66 day hunger strike by Sands who died on 5 May 1981.
 The film won the Camera d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 for first-time film-makers.
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| Title: | In the Name of the Father |
| Country of Origin: |
Ireland / Britain / USA |
| Year of Production: | 1993 |
| Running Time: | 132 mins |
| Director: | Jim Sheridan |
| Producer: | Jim Sheridan, Arthur Lappin |
| Screenplay/Script: | Jim Sheridan and Terry George |
| Cast: | Daniel Day Lewis, Pete Postlewaite, Emma Thompson, John Lynch, Mark Sheppard, Beattie Edney, Marie Jones, Tina Kellegher, Brian de Salvo, Bosco Hogan, Don Baker |
| Filming Location: | Dublin city and Kilmainham jail |
| Production Company: | Hell's Kitchen |
| Abstract: |
The film deals with the events surrounding the 'Guildford Four' and the Magure family. Gerry Conlon, an unemployed young Belfast man without apparent direction in life, finds his world turned upside down when he is falsely accused of the 1974 Guildford pub bombing. Immediately branded an IRA conspirator, Conlon is coerced into a confession, along with his father.
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| Title: | Lost Lives |
| Country of Origin: | Northern Ireland |
| Year of Production: | 2019 |
| Running Time: | 89 minutes |
| Director: | Dermot Lavery and Michael Hewitt |
| Producer: | Dermot Lavery and Michael Hewitt |
| Screenplay/Script: | Based on the book 'Lost Lives' |
| Cast: | Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh, Bríd Brennan, Roma Downey, Adrian Dunbar, Michelle Fairley, Bronagh Gallagher, Brendan Gleeson, Dan Gordon, Conleth Hill, Ciarán Hinds, Susan Lynch, Des McAleer, Martin McCann, Ian McElhinney, Sean McGinley, James Nesbitt, Liam Neeson, Emer O'Connor, Stephen Rea, Judith Roddy, Michael Smiley, Bronagh Waugh |
| Location: | Northern Ireland |
| Production Company: | DoubleBand Films |
| Abstract: |
 'Lost Lives is a major cinematic film inspired by the book of the same name. Written over seven years by five journalists, it is a book that, uniquely, records the circumstances of every single death in a conflict - the Northern Irish 'Troubles'. There are over 3700 entries in the book. Over 3700 lost lives.
Featuring high-end cinematography, an orchestral score and readings by an ensemble cast of Irish actors, including Kenneth Branagh, Brendan Gleeson, Roma Downey, Liam Neeson, Bríd Brennan and Stephen Rea, the film is a requiem. A reminder that war is hell.' (from film publicity)
The film was released in the UK on 23 October 2019 for one night only.
It was also shown on BBC One NI at 21:00 on 16 February 2020, and on BBC Two at 22:00 on 7 March 2020. (It was available on BBC iPlayer for a period after its broadcast.)
See: Film website: www.lostlivesthefilm.com/
CAIN: Book details |
| Title: | Love Lies Bleeding |
| Country of Origin: | Northern Ireland |
| Year of Production: | 1993 |
| Running Time: | |
| Director: | Michael Winterbottom |
| Producer: | Robert Cooper |
| Screenplay/Script: | Ronan Bennet |
| Cast: | Mark Rylance (Conn Ellis), Elisabeth Bourgine (Sophie Allen), John Kavanagh (Sean Kerrigan), Brendan Gleeson (Thomas Macken), Tony Doyle (Geordie Wilson), James Nesbitt (Niall) |
| Location: | Northern Ireland |
| Production Company: | BBC Northern Ireland, Télécip |
| Abstract: |
 'On the eve of a possible IRA ceasefire, Con Ellis is one of several prisoners released on 24-hour leave. In his day outside, Con determines to find the truth behind the death of his lover, who he believes was killed by Loyalists.'
'Love Lies Bleeding is the first of several Northern Ireland dramas exploring the complexities of the peace process. These films ask whether peace can occur in a community accustomed to violence, and if previous hurts can be forgotten or forgiven in order to create a new society. Love Lies Bleeding, broadcast in September 1993, actually anticipates the first IRA ceasefire, which began some months later. Even more than the later films on the subject, it is based around the desire for revenge and the search for a collective redemption.' |
| Title: | Maeve |
| Country of Origin: |
Britain |
| Year of Production: |
1981 |
| Running Time: | 109 mins
|
| Director: | Pat Murphy, John Davies
|
| Producer: |
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
Pat Murphy |
| Cast: | Mark Mulholland, Bríd Brennan, Trudy Kelly, John Keegan, Mary Jackson
|
| Location: | Belfast, Antrim Coast, and County Down |
| Production Company: |
British Film Institute Production Board; Radio Telefis Éireann |
| Abstract:
| Maeve Sweeney, a young woman living in London returns home to visit her Catholic family in Belfast. Her visit prompts memories of her childhood in Northern Ireland. The story unfolds by skipping between Maeve as a young girl, as a teenager and in the present. As she enters her later teenage years, her boyfriend pressures her to take a stance on the Troubles. Unwilling to take sides in the conflict, Maeve is finally unable to find a place for herself in Northern Irish society and escapes to England.
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| Title: | Mickybo and Me |
| Country of Origin: |
Northern Ireland |
| Year of Production: |
2004 (Released 25 March 2005) |
| Running Time: | 98 mins
|
| Director: | Terry Loane
|
| Producer: | Mark Huffam, Michael McGeagh
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
Terry Loane, adapted from the play by Owen McCafferty |
| Cast: | Julie Walters, Adrian Dunbar, Gina McKee, Susan Lynch, Niall Wright, John Jo McNeill
|
| Location: | Belfast, and ... |
| Production Company: |
New Moon Pictures / Working Title 2 |
| Abstract:
|
The film is set in Belfast in the summer of 1970. Against the backdrop of 'the Troubles', the friendship of two young boys from either side of the political divide ("up the road" and "over the bridge") helps overcome the barriers. Their lives change when they see the film 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'. Together they swear an oath to be blood brothers for life and to try to escape Belfast for the freedom of the Australian outback. Their infatuation with the movie leads them from fantasies into petty crime.
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| Title: | Nothing Personal |
| Country of Origin: |
Ireland / Britain |
| Year of Production: |
1995 |
| Running Time: | 87 mins
|
| Director: | Thaddeus O'Sullivan
|
| Producer: | John Cavendish, Tracey Seaward
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
Daniel Mornin (based on his novel All our Fault) |
| Cast: | John Lynch, James Frain, Ian Hart, Gary Lydon, Michael Gambon, Jennifer Courtney
|
| Location: | Belfast |
| Production Company: |
Channel Four; Little Bird; Bord Scannán na hÉireann |
| Abstract:
| A raw depiction of the Belfast 'troubles' as savage tribal warfare. Set shortly after the 1975 cease fire, the film focuses on the tribulations of Kenny, Protestant leader of a group of Shankill Road Loyalists, and his one-time friend Liam, a Catholic.
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| Title: |
Omagh |
| Country of Origin: |
Britain / Ireland |
| Year of Production: |
2004 (first screened on Channel 4, 27 May 2004) |
| Running Time: | 102 mins
|
| Director: |
Peter Travis |
| Producer: |
Ed Guiney and Paul Greengrass |
| Screenplay/Script: |
Paul Greengrass, Guy Hibbert |
| Cast: |
Gerard McSorley, Michele Forbes, Brenda Fricker, Pauline Hutton, Fiona Glascott, Lorcan Cranitch, Alan Devlin |
| Location: |
Filmed in Navan and Dublin |
| Production Company: |
Channel 4; Tiger Aspect / Hell's Kitchen International |
| Abstract: |
Omagh deals with the events and aftermath of 15 August 1998, when a bomb planted by the 'Real IRA' killed 29 people and two unborn children. The film tells the story of the 'Omagh Support and Self Help' group as the relatives strive to find the truth of what happened that day. At the heart of the film is the story of Michael Gallagher, who lost his 21-year-old son Aiden in the explosion, and who has become a key spokesman and lobbyist for the Support Group. The film was made with the full co-operation of the Support Group and of the Gallagher family.
[The film was first shown on Channel 4 (Britain) but it is also had a limited cinema release before going to video.]
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| Title: | Patriot Games |
| Country of Origin: |
US |
| Year of Production: |
1992 |
| Running Time: | 116 mins
|
| Director: | Phillip Noyce
|
| Producer: | Mace Neufeld, Robert Rehme
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
Peter Iliff, Donald Stewart, Steven Zaillian |
| Cast: | Harrison Ford
|
| Location: |
|
| Production Company: |
Paramount Pictures; Neufeld-Rehme Productions |
| Abstract:
| In this adaptation of Tom Clancy's best-seller, Harrison Ford plays Jack Ryan, an ex-C.I.A. analyst who single-handedly foils an I.R.A. kidnap attempt while on vacation in London. Ryan kills one of the terrorists, which antagonises the young man's elder brother, and Ryan gets drawn back into the CIA when the same splinter faction of the IRA targets him and his family.
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| Title: |
Patriots |
| Country of Origin: |
US |
| Year of Production: |
19924 |
| Running Time: |
83 mins
|
| Director: | Frank Kerr |
| Producer: |
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
Frank Kerr |
| Cast: |
Linda Amendola; Mark Newell; Aidan Parkinson |
| Location: |
|
| Production Company: |
Boston Pictures |
| Abstract:
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"A true story about a young American woman caught up in the bloody struggle for Irish independence. Alexis Shannon is recruited into the IRA by a handsome gunrunner who is actually an undercover agent working for Great Britain. When the IRA is tipped off that it has been infiltrated, Alexis must blow up a police station to prove her allegiance to the cause and is then forced to hide from the terrorists who attempt to kill her. Angry and abandoned, Alexis is finally smuggled back to the United States." (www.imdb.com)
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| Title: | Resurrection Man |
| Country of Origin: |
Britain |
| Year of Production: |
1997 |
| Running Time: | 102 mins
|
| Director: | Marc Evans
|
| Producer: | Andrew Eaton
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
Eoin McNamee |
| Cast: | Stuart Townsend, James Nesbitt, John Hannah, Geraldine O'Rawe and Brenda Fricker
|
| Location: |
|
| Production Company: |
PolyGram Films (UK) Limited; PolyGram Filmed Entertainment; Revolution Films |
| Abstract:
| Violent drama set in Belfast during the 1970's about a member of the Loyalist terror group, the Shankill Butchers.
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| Title: |
Silent Grace |
| Country of Origin: |
Ireland |
| Year of Production: |
2001 (released 2004) |
| Running Time: |
87 mins |
| Director: |
Maeve Murphy |
| Producer: |
Maeve Murphy; Deirdre McMahon Co-Producer |
| Screenplay/Script: | Maeve Murphy |
| Cast: |
Orla Brady (Eileen); Cathleen Bradley (Aine); Cara Seymour (Margaret); Dawn Bradfield (Geraldine); Conor Mullen (Cunningham); Robert Newman (Father McGarry); Patrick Bergin |
| Location: |
Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin |
| Production Company: |
Crimson Films Ltd.; Follower Films |
| Abstract: |
 Silent Grace tells, through fictional drama, the story of women prisoners in Armagh Jail during the period of the republican Dirty Protest / Hunger Strike in 1980. The film was inspired by the largely unreported involvement of women in the protests in 1980.
The film was received with critical acclaim at its premiere before being released by Guerilla Films in cinemas in the UK and Ireland. It was Critics Choice in the London Metro and Dublin Hot Press. It was awarded the Soka Art Award and nominated for the Conflict and Resolution Award at the Hamptons Film Festival USA.
It is the only troubles-related film to have been written and directed by a Northern Irish woman.
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| Title: | Some Mother's Son |
| Country of Origin: |
Ireland / USA |
| Year of Production: | 1996 |
| Running Time: | 112 mins |
| Director: | Terry George |
| Producer: | Jim Sheridan and Arthur Lappin |
| Screenplay/Script: | Terry George and Jim Sheridan |
| Cast: | John Lynch (Cal), Helen Mirren (Kathleen Quigley), Fionnuala Falanagan, Aidan Gillen, David O'Hara, Tom Hollander, Gerard McSorley, Ciaran Hinds, John Kavanagh |
| Location: | |
| Production Company: | Hell's Kitchen and Castle Rock Entertainment |
| Abstract: |
A political drama about a fictionalised 1981 Maze hunger striker (though the historical hunger strikers also appear), taken from a mother's perspective.
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| Title: | Sunday |
| Country of Origin: | Britain |
| Year of Production: | 2001 (first screened on Channel 4, 28 January 2002) |
| Running Time: |
93 mins |
| Director: | Charles McDougall |
| Producer: |
Gub Neal; Co-producers: Gaslight Productions |
| Screenplay/Script: | Jimmy McGovern |
| Cast: | Bríd Brennan (Mrs Young); Eva Birthisltle (Maura Young); Ciaran McMenamin (Leo Young); Christopher Eccleston (General Ford); Barry Mullan (John Young); Corin Redgrave (Edward Heath) |
| Filming Location: | Derry, Northern Ireland |
| Production Company: |
Sunday Productions (NI) Ltd. |
| Abstract: |
Sunday deals with the events that happened in Derry on 30 January 1972. During a civil rights march the British Army shot dead 13 civilian protesters and wounded another 14 people (one of whom died later in the year). The film provies some background to Bloody Sunday by briefly dealing with the civil rights campaign of 1968 and Internment in August 1971. The film also deals with the Widgery Inquiry in 1972.
[The film was first shown on Channel 4 (Britain) television (also given a limited cinema release?).]
(The Web site - www.sundayfilm.net - about the film is no longer working.)
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| Title: | The Boxer |
| Country of Origin: | Ireland |
| Year of Production: | 1997 |
| Running Time: | 114 mins |
| Director: | Jim Sheridan |
| Producer: | Arthur Lappin, Jim Sheridan |
| Screenplay/Script: | Terry George |
| Cast: | Daniel Day-Lewis (Danny Flynn); Emily Watson (Maggie Hamill); Brian Cox (Joe Hamill); Ken Stott (Ike Weir); Gerard McSorley (Harry)
|
| Filming Location: | Dublin |
| Production Company: | Hell's Kitchen |
| Abstract: |
Day-Lewis plays the boxer, Danny, an IRA member who emerges from 14 years in prison to a Belfast still devastated by sectarian conflict. This is the third collaboration between Jim Sheridan and Daniel Day Lewis. |
| Title: | The Crying Game |
| Country of Origin: |
Britain / Ireland |
| Year of Production: | 1992 |
| Running Time: | 110 mins |
| Director: | Neil Jordan |
| Producer: | Steven Wooley |
| Screenplay/Script: | Neil Jordan |
| Cast: | Stephen Rea, Forest Whitaker, Miranda Richardson, Jaye Davidson, Adrian Dunbar, Tony Slattery |
| Location: | County Meath |
| Production Company: | Palace Productions |
| Abstract:
| A British soldier is abducted by the IRA and held hostage on a farm by an IRA volunteer, who comes to respect and understand him. The film contains a unique twist in its treatment of political violence, race and sexuality, but it handles it in a way that does not alienate mainstream audiences.
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| Title: | The Devil's Own |
| Country of Origin: | USA |
| Year of Production: | 1997 |
| Running Time: | 110 mins |
| Director: | Alan J. Pakula |
| Producer: | Lawrence Gordon and Robert F. Colesberry |
| Screenplay/Script: | Kevin Jarre, Vincent Patrick and David Cohen |
| Cast: | Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford
|
| Location: | |
| Production Company: |
Columbia Pictures Corporation |
| Abstract:
| IRA man Frankie McGuire is sent to New York with a false name, Rory Devaney, and a mad mission to buy Stinger missiles. He is placed with the family of cop Tom O'Meara. Surrounded by a wife and three daughters, O'Meara takes to Devaney, who in turn sees in O'Meara the benevolent father he lost to the violence at home when he was a child of 8. The problems arise when Tom begins to suspect something about Rory's identity.
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| Title: | The Eliminator |
| Country of Origin: | Ireland |
| Year of Production: | 1996 |
| Running Time: | 83 mins |
| Director: | Enda Hughes |
| Producer: | Enda Hughes, Denis O'Hare, Michael Hughes |
| Screenplay/Script: | Enda Hughes |
| Cast: | Barry Wallace, Michael Hughes, Mike Duffy, Edward Hughes, Paul McAvinchey, Donna Crilly |
| Location: | Keady, County Armagh |
| Production Company: |
Cousins Pictures |
| Abstract:
| This low-budget sci-fi film is considered by some a cult classic. A young Northern Irish man, John O'Brien - a member of The Organisation - is hard at work on plans for a terrifying, turbo-charged military vehicle, the VIPER, intended for urban warfare. After much fighting, gunfire, explosions, car chases soaring bodycount, zombies and the resurrected spirit of Saint Patrick, there is one last apocalyptic explosion.
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| Title: | The Foreigner |
| Country of Origin: |
China; United Kingdom |
| Year of Production: |
2017 |
| Running Time: |
144 mins
|
| Director: |
Martin Campbell
|
| Producer: | Jackie Chan, Wayne Marc Godfrey, D. Scott Lumpkin, Jamie Marshall, Arthur M. Sarkissian |
| Screenplay/Script: |
David Marconi. Based on: The Chinaman by Stephen Leather. |
| Cast: |
Jackie Chan, Pierce Brosnan, Ray Fearon, Orla Brady, Tao Liu, Charlie Murphy, Katherine Davies |
| Location: |
London; Belfast
|
| Production Company: |
The Fyzz Facility; Sparkle Roll Media; Huayi Brothers Pictures; Wanda Pictures |
| Abstract:
|
A humble businessman (Chan), The Foreigner of the title, with a buried past, seeks justice when his daughter is killed in a bombing, in London, carried out by the 'Authentic IRA'. He travels to Belfast and a cat-and-mouse conflict ensues with a Northern Ireland government official (Brosnan),
whose past association with the IRA may hold clues to the killers' identities.
[One or two reviewers commented that Brosnan, with grey beard and glasses, looked very like the then Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.]
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| Title: | The Jackal |
| Country of Origin: |
USA |
| Year of Production: |
1997 |
| Running Time: | 124 mins
|
| Director: | Michael Caton-Jones
|
| Producer: | Jim Jacks, Sean Daniel, Michael Caton-Jones, Kevin Jarre
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
Kevin Jarre, Chuck Pfarrer |
| Cast: | Bruce Willis, Richard Gere and Sydney Poitier
|
| Location: |
|
| Production Company: |
Universal Pictures |
| Abstract:
| This film is loosely based on the 1970s book and movie that were based on actual events. Bruce Willis is The Jackal, an infamous terrorist/spy that is hired to assassinate the President. Richard Gere plays an imprisoned IRA terrorist who is the only man who can identify The Jackal and Sydney Poitier is the CIA agent in charge of the operation.
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| Title: | The Long Good Friday |
| Country of Origin: |
Britain |
| Year of Production: |
1979 |
| Running Time: | 114 mins
|
| Director: | John Mackenzie
|
| Producer: | Barry Hanson
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
Barry Keeffe |
| Cast: | Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren
|
| Location: |
|
| Production Company: |
Black Lion Films; Calendar Productions |
| Abstract: | Thriller set in London, in which a prosperous English gangster comes under attack by the IRA who are out to seek revenge for his friend, Colin, who has stolen money from the them and been indirectly responsible for three of their top men being killed in a police raid.
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| Title: | The Outsider |
| Country of Origin: | Holland ? |
| Year of Production: | 1979 |
| Running Time: | 128 mins |
| Director: | Tony Luraschi |
| Producer: | Philippe Modave |
| Screenplay/Script: | Tony Luraschi (based on the novel 'The Heritage of Michael Flaherty' by Colin Leinster) |
| Cast: | Craig Wasson (Michael Flaherty), Sterling Hayden (Seamus Flaherty), Patricia Quinn (Siobhan), Niall O'Brien (Emmet Donovan), T.P. McKenna (John Russell), Ray McAnally (Mac Whirter), Niall Toibin (Farmer), Frank Grimes (Tony Coyle), Elizabeth Begley (Mrs. Cochran), Bosco Hogan (Finbar Donovan). |
| Location: | Dublin and Detroit USA
|
| Production Company: | Cinematic Arts B V; Paramount Pictures |
| Abstract: | The conflict between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the British Army in Northern Ireland provides the backdrop for this drama set in the early 1970s. Michael Flaherty (Craig Wasson) is an American of Irish descent who, after returning home from a tour of duty in Vietnam, is deciding what to do with his life. Since his childhood, Michael's grandfather Seamus (Sterling Hayden) has told him of his glorious younger days in Ireland, when he fought against the British with the IRA. Michael decides to go to Belfast to help the fight to end British rule, but he soon finds out that he's not welcomed by many of the locals. He's considered more important as a symbol than as a soldier or an activist - so much so that the IRA plans to have him killed in a way that can be blamed on British forces in order to help elicit financial support from wealthy Americans.
[The Outsider was withdrawn from the 1980 London Film Festival on the pretext that it was not technically up to standard.]
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| Title: | The Violent Enemy |
| Country of Origin: |
Britain |
| Year of Production: |
1969 |
| Running Time: | 94 mins
|
| Director: | Don Sharp and Wilfred Eades
|
| Producer: | Wilfred Eades
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
Edmund Ward |
| Cast: | Tom Bell, Susan Hampshire and Ed Begley
|
| Location: |
|
| Production Company: |
Trio Films; Group W |
| Abstract:
| Ireland is the backdrop for this IRA tale about a plan to blow up a British power station. An escaped Republican prisoner learns of the plan and uses his resources to stop the destruction.
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| Title: | This is the Sea |
| Country of Origin: |
Ireland / USA / Britain |
| Year of Production: |
1996 |
| Running Time: | 104 mins
|
| Director: | Mary McGuckian
|
| Producer: | Michael Garland
|
| Screenplay/Script: |
Mary McGuckian |
| Cast: | Samantha Morton, Ross McDade, Gabriel Byrne, John Lynch
|
| Location: |
|
| Production Company: |
Pembridge Productions; Bord Scannán na hÉ Overseas Filmgroup |
| Abstract:
| The film is set in Northern Ireland shortly after 1994 cease-fire. Hazel is a Protestant and Malachy a Catholic. Romance between them is a threatened by prejudices, and by Rohan (leader in militant underground and friend of Malachy's brother), who wants Malachy to be recruited and fight for the cause, and by Hazel's brother Jef, who spies on her meetings.
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| Title: | Titanic Town |
| Country of Origin: | Britain |
| Year of Production: | 2000 |
| Running Time: | mins
|
| Director: | Roger Michell |
| Producer: | George Faber and Charlie Pattinson |
| Screenplay/Script: | Anne Devlin (novel by Mary Costello) |
| Cast: | Julie Walters (Bernie McPhelimy); Ciaran Hin (Aidan McPhelimy); |
| Location: | |
| Production Company: | |
| Abstract: |
Based on a true story and set in Belfast during the 1970s. The film tells the story of one woman's efforts to protect her family from the impact of 'the Troubles'.
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Movies about earlier 'Troubles' in Ireland (pre-1968)
A Terrible Beauty (1960) IMDb
Beloved Enemy (1936) IMDb
Irish Destiny (1926) IMDb
Juno and the Paycock (1930) IMDb
Michael Collins (1996) IMDb
Odd Man Out (1947) IMDb
Ourselves Alone (1936) IMDb
Shake Hands with the Devil (1959) IMDb
The Dawn (1936)
The Gentle Gunman (1952) IMDb
The Informer (1929)
The Informer (1935) Dir: John Ford. IMDb
The Key (1934) IMDb
The Plough and the Stars (1936) IMDb
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) Dir: Ken Loach; Writer: Paul Laverty. IMDb
(Winner of the PALME D'OR at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival)
This Other Eden (1959) IMDb
List of some source materials:
Burns-Bisogno, Louisa. (1997). Censoring Irish Nationalism: the British, Irish and American Suppression of Republican Images in Film and Television, 1909-1995. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland.
Connelly, Mark. (2012). The IRA on Film and Television: A History. Jefferson: McFarland & Company Inc.
Donnelly, K.J. (2000). 'The Policing of Cinema: Torubled Film Exhibition in Northern Ireland'. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 20, (3): 385-396.
Edge, S.J. (1999). 'Feisty Colleens or Mother Ireland: Representations of Women in Irish Cinema'. Fortnight, (379): 8-10.
Hill, J. (1999). 'Film production in Northern Ireland'. Fortnight (special supplement), (379): 5-7.
Hill, John. (2006). Cinema and Northern Ireland: Film, Culture and Politics. New Jersey: Princeton Press.
McIlroy, Brian. (1996). 'When the Ulster Protestant and Unionist Looks: Spectatorship in (Northern) Irish Cinema'. Irish University Review, 26, (1): 143-154.
McIlroy, Brian. (2001). Shooting to Kill: Filmmaking and the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland. Richmond, B.C.: Steveston Press.
McKittrick, David. (2008). Why Irish protestants are hungry for a voice, The Independent, Friday 31 October 2008. [article at external web site]
McLoone, M. (1999). 'Re-imagining the Nation: Themes and Issues in Irish Cinema. Cinéaste, 24, (2-3): 28-34.
McLoone, M. (2001). 'Psychos and Sickos: Cinematic Representations of Loyalists, in, Bell, D. Dissenting Voices/Imagined Communities (Belfast Film Festival pamphlet), Proceedings of Belfast Film Festival. 8-9. Belfast: Belfast Film Festival.
Pettitt, Lance. (2000). Screening Ireland: Film and television representation. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
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