Hunger Steve McQueen

The long and sad history of the conflict in Northern Ireland - commonly known as ‘the Troubles’ - has often provided a rich source of material for British filmmakers. This year at Cannes, the opener of the Un Certain Regard programme provides the latest contribution to this cinematic canon.

Hunger - the much-hyped debut feature from Turner-Prize winning artist Steve McQueen - recounts the last days of Provisional IRA paramilitary Bobby Sands, who died after 66 days on hunger strike in the infamous ‘Maze’ prison in 1981. The strike, which was led by Sands, was the culmination of an extended protest against the removal of Republican prisoners’ political status by the Thatcher government.

In this beautifully composed film, the camera rarely ventures outside, offering an intense, intimate and disturbing depiction of life within the prison’s walls; where inmates resist by refusing to wash and smearing their cell walls with excrement, and the guards respond with routine beatings and humiliations. It is a full 30 minutes into the film before we first encounter Sands during one of these of horrifically violent episodes.

After the brutality of the ‘H’ block, the hospital ward where we follow Sands during his last months is a sharp contrast; rather than beaten, his fragile, emaciated body is now gently handled between calm and sterile white sheets as it wastes slowly away. These final sequences occasionally border on romanticism – particularly the poetic ending, in which we see a flock of birds taking flight, symbolising his departure from the worldly realm. However, the film neither ignores nor simplifies the more complex moral dimension of his actions (noble self-sacrifice, or desire for personal glory through martyrdom?)

Whilst on hunger strike, Sands was elected as a member of parliament. His death provoked an international wave of sympathy for the IRA’s agenda, and an intensification of the violence between nationalists and unionists. Today he remains an iconic figure for Republicans.

Hunger is not only a harrowing evocation of a specific place and time; a reminder of one of the many dark moments in the history of Anglo-Irish relations. It is also a meditation on the act of sacrificing one’s own life for a political cause – something which has a particular resonance in today’s political climate.

Jude Lister