It’s important to remember stories like this... lest we forget. The peace is hard earned
SIR KENNETH BRANAGH TELLS A VERY PERSONAL STORY WITH HIS BEAUTIFUL NEW FILM, BELFAST. HE TALKS TO LAURA HARDING ABOUT THE EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE
WHEN Sir Kenneth Branagh was a little boy growing up in Northern Ireland, a mob of Protestants rioted down his street, smashing windows, brandishing pieces of wrought iron and threatening the Catholics who were living peacefully there.
His family, who were Protestants themselves, were unharmed, but the moment was a defining one for the actor and director, who recreates the harrowing moment in the opening of his new semi-autobiographical film, Belfast.
The family drama follows a little boy called Buddy, played by newcomer Jude Hill, whose family, including parents played by The Tourist’s Jamie Dornan and Outlander star Caitriona Balfe, are caught up in The Troubles at the end
of the 1960s, sparking his parents’ decision to leave their home behind.
“I think that I probably began to realise over the years that the leaving of Belfast was really an event that I couldn’t ever escape in its impact,” reflects Sir Kenneth, now 61.
“The film really describes quintessentially a 20 seconds where my life changed forever, when a mob came down our street, a neighbourhood that otherwise had been very peaceful and harmonious, where we lived side by side with Catholics.
“In what followed, which was the street being completely reconfigured into a fortress really, I think a series of things psychologically started to kick in, like they do when youthful experiences have a big impact, that have been with me ever since.
“I didn’t know how such a story could manifest itself in a film, but at the beginning of this lockdown there were so many similar feelings thrown up of being unsettled, of life providing the unknown, and really a desire to reach for all the things that helped you get through it – humour, human connection, your family, and a search for all the coping mechanisms – music, dancing, anything that asserted life, and fun and certainty at a time when things were so very deeply uncertain.”
It has taken Sir Kenneth some time to realise that day was “a very, very traumatising thing”.
“One of the reasons it takes so long is that a big part of the Northern Ireland DNA is that you don’t go on about stuff like this,” he muses. “You don’t indulge, you don’t suggest that your challenges, your struggles, your problems, are any greater than anybody else’s.
“So it’s taken me a long time to get to the point where I realised that remains the truth, but it doesn’t mean that your story doesn’t have some kind of value, quite the opposite, because you begin to recognise that other people might benefit from understanding these moments.
“Going back to experience it, in the doing of it, the shooting of it, it wasn’t so bad, because so much of that was mechanics. It was afterwards, as you put it all together, and as it started to have its own life, it began to be a cumulatively more emotional experience.
“And it has had me quite a bit closer to tears on a day-to-day basis than I might otherwise be. But part of the process was understanding that tears can be helpful.”
It was only during the editing process that Sir Kenneth, whose previous directing projects include Thor, Cinderella and Murder On The Orient Express – as well as a string of Shakespeare adaptations, thought about how the film might be received by others who lived through this period.
“The film sort of revealed that that’s what it was about, and that’s what it was for. The weight of sadness across the various incidents, as well as the the tenderness and the hard earned joy, just somehow allowed you to recognise that it was tough for everyone and it was a shared tragedy and the wound is still one shared by many people.
“It’s important to remember stories like this, lest we forget, because the peace which has to be won every day is hard earned and hard won, and I think many, many people do not want to go back to those days.”
While the film was deeply personal for its creator, it was also personal for its stars, many of whom grew up in the midst of the Troubles.
“I was born 13 years into a 30-year conflict,” says 39-year-old Jamie, who grew up in Belfast, “and I’ve seen the effect that it’s had on the place and the people, both during the conflict and the post-conflict society there. It couldn’t be more personal really, to be able to tell the story.
“I left at 19, Caitriona left at 18, not to avoid the beginning of a war, but we all did for different reasons, and I understand what that means. And I’ve also spent 20 years going around the world, telling people I’m from Belfast and seeing all kinds of
reactions to just that.
“And I think this film can help to settle some of the ideas that people have about that place and the people in my place, because we get to see it through the eyes of normal family and that’s really vital.”
Catriona, 42, who was born in Dublin and grew up right on the border, recalls crossing military checkpoints as a young girl.
“The conflict and the weight of everything that was happening was omnipresent. We used to cross the border weekly, and go through army checkpoints, and all of that, so
I think when I first read this script one of the things that impacted upon me the most was just the compassion and the empathy that Ken had for this ordinary working class family who had not asked for this.
“We’ve seen many, many great films about Northern Ireland and about the Troubles, but I think there’s been an absence of films just about the everyday working class family, who sort of got caught up among it.
“I think the enormity of the tragedy is we allowed this to happen for so long. And I think one of the things in this post-conflict time that we’re in is how easily people forget that, and how quickly people are willing to jump on these easy slogans and put that in jeopardy. I think it’s a good time right now to have everyone remember that this is a precarious peace we have, and it’s so important and that we need to protect that.”
The conflict and the weight of everything that was happening was omnipresent. Catriona Balfe on her childhood
Belfast is in cinemas now