Film: Hunger (2008)

Despite having most of the day to make it to the Institute of Contemporary Arts for today's showing of Hunger, I was still in a rush, and still slightly late. Well, see, I got to booking fights back to Ireland - I always book in advance to try to get a better price - and with flight prices expensive around Easter, I said I'd better keep going.. so ended up leaving a bit later than intended.

No Tube problems this evening - might have had something to do with me not travelling on the District Line! Anyway, the lady at the box office - when she got through with her conversation with her colleague - reassured me that I was in plenty of time, there were 15 minutes of trailers. A very different policy from that of the British Film Institute!

I didn't see Hunger when it was first released. Steve McQueen's first directorial feature - 12 Years a Slave is only his third! - is a powerful and shocking piece. (Shame was the one in the middle. All star Michael Fassbender - I guess each director has a favourite actor.) 2/3 years between each. If he continues at this pace, we can expect something else powerful from him next year, or the year after.

And boy, he doesn't like pleasant subjects, now does he? Slavery, sex addiction - and in Hunger, the 1981 hunger strikes in the Maze prison, Belfast. The story, basically, is that Republican prisoners had special status, as part of an agreement with the British government, up to 1976, when the government decided to end it. This essentially meant that they did not have to wear uniforms, or perform prison duties. It was essentially equivalent to POW status under the Geneva convention.

The prisoners didn't take kindly to the ending of this arrangement. As we see in the film, they refused to wear uniforms. The protest later escalated to the "dirty protest". Unable to leave their cells because of riots and beatings, the prisoners could not slop out, and instead smeared their excrement over their cell walls and poured the urine under the door, into the hall. The government still intransigent, the prisoners, led by Bobby Sands, decided to go on hunger strike.

Michael Fassbender plays Bobby Sands - we also have Frank McCusker as the governor, and Liam Cunningham as Father Moran. And a more powerful piece you will be hard pressed to find. Not one bit is exaggerated - yes, it was that bad. I remember seeing the pictures. Hard to imagine living in that stench, never mind going on hunger strike. The fear of the prison officers is also shown. The prison guard who has to check under his car every day for a car bomb. The riot officer who is reduced to tears, hiding around the corner, when his colleagues are beating the naked prisoners, to try to subdue them so they can be washed. Not an easy film to watch.

But a very, very powerful one. Much of it is completely silent. Bobby Sands' gradual deterioration and death could be filmed in an over emotional way. It isn't - it's very quiet, and all the more moving for it. Little is said, but we can see his weakening, the sores on his body. His hearing and sight deteriorate. And then he's gone, and we're informed that the British government, after the end of the hunger strike, subsequently, quietly, implemented all the prisoners' demands - just not acknowledging their "special status".

For my money, this is a better film than 12 Years a Slave - not to say that that wasn't good, but it lacks the simple power of this. Funny how it was completely ignored by the Oscars. But then, we all know the Oscars are all about politics, eh? American slavery = good topic. Will probably win most awards just for that. Irish hunger strikers = not good topic. Too much **** on the walls. Ignored. Hey-ho, it's their party..

Overheard in the ladies' afterwards - two young English women discussing the film. "You know that scene in the middle, with the priest?" Ah yes, I thought - the one where Sands' political ideology is explained, the expository scene that sets up the rest of the film.. "I couldn't understand a word!"

:-) True, they didn't compromise on the accent. No subtitles.

Ironically, the one thing I wanted to do afterwards was eat, but the first two supermarkets I tried were closed! Well, my personal hunger was eventually sated..

For tomorrow, there's an interesting-sounding play on in the Arcola, in Dalston Junction, of all places! It's an age since I've been there - but at least the tube strike won't start back up until Tuesday. Anyway, this play - Punishment without Revenge - is part of their Spanish Golden Age season. Written in 1631, lots of drama as a stepson and stepmother fall for each other in Renaissance Italy. Yes please! And on Tuesday, at last, something I booked back in December - 1980, a piece by Pina Bausch, at Sadlers Wells. Looks good, but strange enough that I prebooked a programme, so I might be able to figure our what it's about. As I shall have to figure out my transport options again, coming back..