KENNETH BRANAGH’s Belfast has been nominated for 7 Academy Awards. The cast includes Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds, Caitríona Balfe, Lewis McAskie, and 10 year-old Jude Hill. He speaks about the film, which draws heavily on his own experiences growing up in the city where he was born.
Belfast is a poignant coming of age story about a boy trying to make sense of a rapidly changing world around him. Amidst all the upheaval, there is still laughter and joy.
“Humour is certainly part of it because it seems to characterise Irish-ness and also the resilience of many people on these islands, you know, in dealing with dark times and that can feel overwhelming,” says Branagh.
“Someone said to me, after they had seen an early version of the script, ‘you should put more politics in it.’ And I said, ‘well, what do you mean by politics? Do you mean middle aged men in suits who you see on TV talking?’
“Because I think back then that’s what we couldn’t get past, we couldn’t understand and the brain seized up as we tried to work out, ‘how do we reclaim our streets? How do we deal with having a barricade at either end of the street and you have to sign in to get in and out?’
“Well, it’s going to have to start with whatever makes us laugh for the next minute or so, or is there the chance of an ad hoc party? Has someone got a new record? Is there a song to be had? What are the moments of joy you can grab?
“And sometimes it’s even funnier because humour lives side-by-side with this intense fear because everybody is on code red, they are on high alert but I guess those sharpened senses make you very aware of what is funny in life and every single burst of that joy would be a restorative step in the right direction.”
After finishing writing Belfast, Branagh showed the screenplay to his brother, Bill, and sister Joyce. “They were very surprised because I didn’t tell anybody what I was doing. My wife knew I was going to a shed at the bottom of the garden every day, that’s all she knew and I wouldn’t tell her what it was and my own promise to myself was that I would write and that might be enough.”
“And so, I wrote it and then I thought, ‘well, I wonder what Bill and Joyce think of this? Because I can’t make it if they don’t like it.’ And they had a very emotional reaction. My brother particularly said it took him right back to all sorts of other stories.
“He claims some of the things I say happened to me happened to him and I told him some stories where we imagined what the other one was doing – somehow it’s what memory does; it’s beautiful blur. He filled in a lot of material for me and that was helpful.
“My sister said – and I didn’t even recognise myself in either half of this remark, which shows how un-self-aware I am – but she said ‘you know, for a very quiet, private individual you have really put yourself out there.’
“I said, ‘but I’m an actor, I’m not remotely private’ and she said, ‘yes, but that’s where you hide, you hide in all of those parts and the rest of the time you shut up and you keep yourself pretty much to yourself.’ So, this was a big surprise to her.
“But they both felt that it went beyond the narrow confines of our little family experience and there was some recognition to be had so they gave it their blessing.”
Judi Dench, a close friend and frequent collaborator, says that writing and directing Belfast was cathartic for Branagh. He doesn’t quite go that far, but he does say that it’s a story about the boy, and events, that shaped the man he became.
“Maybe I have been and certainly in contrast to the absolute certainty of the identity that one had back then; in a big family where you had your place, in a big community where everybody knew you and you knew everybody, there was a sort of ease in the way you approached the world that was lost on that day in the summer of 1969.
“And although I don’t wish to go back in a sort of sentimental, infantilised kind of way, I’m grateful to acknowledge that all of that is what made me and that it’s a surprise to me as it might be to other people who might imagine that I trotted out of some academic institution with a big thick volume of Shakespeare under my arm and a degree in classics – quite the opposite, as you can tell.
“So, cathartic? I’m not sure, but it’s certainly liberating to feel as though, as a friend of mine said, ‘you’ve outed yourself!’” he laughs.
Audiences, and critics, have embraced Belfast. It won the People’s Choice Award at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, was named one of the best films of 2021 by the National Board of Review and earned seven Golden Globe nominations, including Best Picture (drama) and Best Supporting actor for Dornan, and winning for Best Screenplay for Branagh.
What: Kenneth Branagh interview Belfast
When: In cinemas from Friday, 4 March 2022
WS
