Shades of grey
Sir Kenneth Branagh’s black and white drama is touching, witty and his most personal movie yet
IT’S August 1969, houses are burning, there are soldiers on the streets and a tight-knit community is being ripped apart. But for nine-year-old Buddy, it’s the summer of love.
His new favourite film, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, is on at the cinema, his idol Danny Blanchflower has been banging them in for his beloved Spurs and he’s pining for a classroom reunion with his first crush.
Lockdown forced Belfast-born writer-director Kenneth Branagh to look inwards and this touching, witty and unashamedly sentimental black-and-white drama is his most personal film yet. Belfast shows us a violent conflict from the bemused and often distracted point of view of a wideeyed little boy.
Branagh stand-in Buddy (a wonderfully unaffected Jude Hill) is swashbuckling with a bin lid and toy sword when a real battle erupts on his terraced street.
Before he can make it home for tea, there’s an explosion. Soon, barricades will be erected, and Buddy will be expected to define his pals by the religion and politics of their parents.
Until now, they’ve all lived harmoniously in this mixed neighbourhood.
But unionist thug Billy Clanton (Colin Morgan) expects Buddy’s parents to help him “cleanse” the streets of its minority Catholics.
Buddy lives with his worried Ma (Caitriona Balfe), his big brother Will (Lewis McAskie) and sometimes with his upstanding Pa (Jamie Dornan) who regularly heads to England to work as a joiner.
Luckily, Granny (Judi Dench) and Pop (Ciaran Hinds) are close at hand to dispense words of wisdom.
None of them suffer from religious or political fervour but Belfast is no longer a safe place for the rational or the reasonable.
As the grown ups contemplate a new life abroad, little Buddy drinks in the sights and sounds that will stay with him for ever.
■ In cinemas now