MOVIE NEWS – Kenneth Branagh had long entertained the idea of making a film about his childhood in Belfast, but the impetus was missing.

Interestingly, it took the plague to finally get the five-time Oscar-nominated actor-director to get serious about the project. “The quarantine made me realise how fragile and vulnerable our lives are,” Branagh, 60, told Vanity Fair. – I felt the moment was finally right.”

The film is set in the summer of 1969, when eight-year-old Branagh’s life was changed forever: in Northern Ireland, the Troubles, a conflict between Catholic Irish and Protestant loyalists, was well under way. “We had lost our innocence, if you like, nothing could ever be the same again. As the years went by, I tried to understand that this was the dividing line: I was expected to put aside my childishness and throw myself into the perils of adulthood.”

The black-and-white film stars Jude Hill in the lead role, with Jamie Dornan and Caitríona Balfe as his parents and Judy Dench and Ciarán Hinds as his grandparents. Although the events are quite dramatic, Branagh portrays his childhood with wise humour and light-hearted moments.

Source: UIP-Duna Film