Love, laughter and loss

BELFAST (12A, 98mins)

Life in black and white seems more colourful and vibrant in writer-director Kenneth Branagh’s wondrous comingof-age drama, drawn from the film-maker’s vast well of childhood experiences in 1960s Belfast. Sincerely dedicated to the people of the Northern Irish capital, Branagh’s most personal film unfolds from the perspective of a nine-year-old rapscallion called Buddy (played by luminous newcomer Jude Hill), who we first see romping around the streets with his pals, brandishing a homemade wooden sword and using an upturned dustbin lid as a shield. The cheeky tyke is slaying imaginary dragons but the invisible enemy, which is poised to roar and tear apart Protestant and Catholic communities, is a two-headed hydra of political and nationalistic fervour. Principal characters in Branagh’s script are referred to simply by their familial ties to Buddy – Ma, Pa, Granny and Pop – tapping into an undercurrent of charming childhood innocence that insulates the boy from the harsh reality of barricades being hastily erected in the street or a local supermarket being looted during a riot. Buddy (Hill) and his family – Pa (Jamie Dornan), Ma (Caitiona Balfe) and older brother Will – live in a predominantly Protestant district of north Belfast, cheek by jowl with Catholic neighbours. Granny (Dame Judi Dench) and Pop (Ciaran Hinds) live a few streets away.

Billy Clanton and his comrades target Catholic houses in the neighbourhood, claiming they are “lookin’ to cleanse the community a wee bit”. Hostilities result in the family going through barricade checkpoints and local men patrolling night-time streets with torches. For Pa, it is an unthinkable opportunity to transplant the clan to Australia or Canada: “An escape route”.

“The Irish were born for leaving,” an aunt tells Buddy’s mother by way of a bittersweet farewell. “Otherwise the rest of the world would have no pubs!”

Caitriona Balfe as Ma, Jamie Dornan as Pa, Judi Dench as Granny, Jude Hill as Buddy and Lewis Mcaskie as Will