Hunger

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with prison guard Raymond Lohan (Stuart Graham) preparing to leave for work; checking under his car for bombs, putting on his uniform in the locker room, and ignoring the camaraderie of his colleagues.Davey (Brian Milligan), a new IRA prisoner, arrives at the gaol. Due to his refusal to wear the prison uniform, he is labeled "non-cooperative" and is sent to his cell naked, with only a blanket for warmth. His new roommate, Gerry (Liam McMahon), has smeared the cell with faeces from floor to ceiling and we witness their resistance to the prison regime. The two men get to know each other, as we see them living in the cell.During a visitor day, Gerry's girlfriend sneaks in a small radio by wrapping it and keeping it in her vagina.Prison officers forcibly and violently remove the prisoners from their cells and beat them before pinning them down to cut their long hair and beards, which are grown as part their protest. The prisoners resist with Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) spitting in Lohan's face, who responds by punching him in the face and then swings again, only this time missing, and punching the wall in the process, which causes his knuckles to bleed. He cuts Sands' hair and beard, then has his men throw Sands in the bath tub and scrub him clean before hauling him away again in the same brutal manner as before. Lohan is then seen washing his hands as his hands are bloodied, in a similar way similar to the first scene.Later, the prisoners are taken out of their cells and given second-hand civilian clothing. The guards can be seen and heard snickering, as the clothes handed to the prisoners. Sands' initial action to this process is to tear up his clothes and wreck his cell, to which the rest of the prisoners mirror in their own cells. For the next interaction with the prisoners, a large number of riot officers are seen arriving at the prison on a truck. They line up and beat their batons against their shields and scream to scare the prisoners, who are hauled from their cells, then thrown in between the lines of riot police where they are beaten with the batons by at least 10 men at one time. Lohan and several of his colleagues then probe first their anuses and then their mouths, using the same pair of latex gloves for each man. One prisoner head-butts a guard and is beaten brutally by a riot officer. One of the riot officers is seen crying while his colleagues, on the other side of the wall, brutally beat the prisoners with their batons.Meanwhile, Lohan is shown to visiting his elderly mother in a nursing home, where he is shot in the back of the head by an unnamed IRA assassin and dies slumped onto his non-responsive mother's lap.Sands is the final focus of the film. He deeply believes in the cause for which he was imprisoned and in the righteousness of dying for political prisoner status. In one of the film's most notable scenes, Sands debates the morality of the hunger strike with Father Dominic Moran (Liam Cunningham). In this conversation, Sands tells the priest about a trip to Donegal where he stumbled upon a severely injured young foal by a stream. Sands drowned the foal and tells the priest that even though he got into trouble, he knew by ending its suffering, he had done what was best. He then goes on to state that he knows what he is doing (talking about the hunger strike) and what it will do to his body.Finally, Sands is shown many weeks into his hunger strike, with sores all over his body, kidney failure, low blood pressure, stomach ulcers, and the inability to stand all by himself. In one of his last days, while Sands lies in a bath, a different prison guard/helper comes in to give his usual one a break. The new guard sits next to the tub and shows Sands his tattooed knuckles, which read: "UDA". Sands tries to stand up by himself and eventually succeeds,all whist staring defiantly at the UDA orderly who refuses to help him up. However this movement all but uses up the remaining strength he has left in his body and shortly after, he crumbles into a heap on the floor. Sands' parents stay for his final few days and when Sands dies, 66 days after beginning the strike, his mother is by his side.

Tags: dark, cruelty, murder, bleak, violence, sadist, atmospheric, flashback, storytelling

Review:
It the end it landed McQueen the Camera D'or.While the film follows the final weeks of Bobby Sand's hunger strike, it is equally about recreating the atmosphere and conditions inside the infamous Long Kesh Maze Prison.
McQueen reminds us of the cruelty and arrogance of the British particularly through the cold words of Margaret Thatcher, speaking shamelessly about Sands' strike.There have been many fantastic films about the Irish Struggles, with some of the best coming in recent years (Ken Loach's fantastic Wind that Shakes the Barley, and Paul Greengrass's Bloody Sunday, to name two of the better).
Telling the story of the last six weeks in the life of Bobby Sands the Irish republican hunger striker the film pulls no punches in showing life inside the maze prison and what the prisoners did to try and win political status.
McQueen's camera is an unflinching witness to the squalor and cruelty, and with the vivid imagery and forceful sounds it is almost possible to smell and feel the frightening environs of the film.Although the focus of the film ultimately falls on Bobby Sands, the IRA member and inmate who leads a fatal hunger strike within the prison, we are not introduced to the main protagonist until a third of the way through the film.
This approach works remarkably well in setting the scene for the main narrative, but it is disappointing that the different perspectives on each side are somewhat sidelined thereafter, as Sands's personal struggle takes centre stage.The terrible squalor of the prison cells provides some of the film's most powerful images, but it is the second third of the film that is the most gripping, as Sands converses and argues with a visiting Catholic priest.
1981.The H block in Belfast's Maze Prison.This film captures the development and escalation of protest by the 'political' prisoners held here as things moved through 'The 'Blanket protest' onto 'The Dirty Protest" and finally to 'The Hunger Strikes' that claimed Bobby Sands and eight of his compatriot's lives.As the end credits of the film show, the enemy, in the form of Margaret Thatcher was 'not for turning' and did not grant political status to these men that she considered no more than murderers.
The stench of human excrement is almost palpable in the opening act and the way in which Michael Fassbender brings Sands' death to the screen is almost unbearable.But the real triumph of the film is that it takes no political sides and makes no judgements but does not sit on the fence.
Steve McQueen, a noted young British artist, has made a powerful first film about the Irish prisoners in H-Block of Maze Prison, Northern Ireland, and the hunger strike and death of Bobby Sands in 1981.
The images are searing, both horrible and beautiful (McQueen is aware from Goya that images of war can be both), and much of the film is non-verbal, but the action is broken up by a centerpiece tour-de-force debate between Sands (Michael Fassbender) and Father Dominic Moran (Liam Cunningham) that is as intensely verbal as the rest is wordless.
Like the American Julian Schnabel, Steve McQueen is another visual artist who has turned out to be an astonishingly good filmmaker.Faithful to the physical details of the H-blocks and the treatment of the prisoners, the film is still honed down to essentials and includes a series of sequences so intense it may take viewers a long time to digest them.
One prisoner, Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) who suffers from the violence goes on a hunger strike to force the British government to give in to his demands.
The film skips over the fact that Bobby Sands won an election to be an MP whilst on hunger strike.The acting is excellent, particularly from Michael Fassbender who is quickly emerging as a massive hot prospect.
Already you would perhaps be considering giving it a miss and maybe this isn't the best time to mention it is a largely dialogue free account of hunger-striker Bobby Sands set entirely in Northern Ireland's infamous Maze prison.
The film later brings Bobby Sands to the fore, delivering one impressive dialogue scene before returning to a dialogue-light charting of his hunger strike on the way to the conclusion that we all know is coming.
and the amount of dedication by Michael Fassbender was unimaginable..The story itself reflect its reality upon the events and just leave us shocked ,, the script was somewhat good ,, the start was as i said gruesome and so shocking to a point where its unwatchable ,, then comes the dialog between "Bobby" and "Father Dominic" , ease things up ,, but intensify the drama ,, then at the end it goes back to the suffering part.The cast was unbelievably amazing , from Michael Fassbender to Stuart Graham, the two actors in the beginning ,, they all did very well.Recommended..
As a film short, it would have lived up to it's 8/10 IMDb rating, but as the first hour and 10 minutes is so devastatingly boring and slow and ultimately offers little to the purpose of the end it isn't worth watching.Yes it serves as a plot for the ending to exist, but an edited down 15 minutes of scenes could have done the same and without losing the audience's attention.The movie makes a strong point and helps relay the tragic circumstances that the paramilitary went through, but unfortunately I will not be recommending this movie to anyone..
It has some weird plot shifts in that it follows one set of protagonists and then shifts to the Bobby Sands character but it didn't bother me at all because you come to realize that all of the prisoners in the story are essentially interchangeable and that in fact in a different country, under different political conditions "it could be you or me." The hieroglyphic storytelling is so masterful, the director can create an entire turn of a phrase in a single shot just with a simple shallow rack focus.Performances are stunning and require a lot of self-sacrifice on the part of the actors.
Why is it that every film about the troubles in N.Ireland have a distinct rep/nat slant and passed off as fact.McQueen had an excellent chance to show all the world the true consequences of terrorism and the effects it has on those who get involved or are victims of terrorists.I find it amazing that no one was interested in aftermath of the brutal murder of the prison officer,a room full of people witness a man getting his brains blow out all over his mother and that is left as a foot note, why?
Gandhi used his hunger strike to end violence.We have with the bloodied blanket scene a reference to the Shroud of Turin or it seems to be, now Sands is being Christ like in his sacrifice, on thing is that Christ died for us all not a section of a divided country.This film will bring joy to those who do not understand N.Ireland and amazement to those who do, when a director has the guts to take an honest warts and all look at the "troubles" then we may all get an idea of the truth and that one side is not the inhuman with the other being the victim.In this respect all McQueen achieved was a film which like all films has to be taken for what it is, a story with events that could have happened.Just a foot note in history, the RIRA was created by Sands brother in-law, they still try to bring violence onto the streets of N.Ireland..
Steve McQueen is a genius in visual storytelling and visual poetry.This film is (mostly) centered around Bobby Sands, an IRA prisoner who let a hunger strike in a northern ireland prison.The direction is masterful; whether holding on expressive faces, a log shot of two guys having a conversation, or hiding with a prison guard crying at the trauma he's forced to inflict on the inmates (perpetuating the cycle of hatred and violence).
When I open up the paper, most days I think to myself, we stopped being humane a long, long time ago..There are moments where some random act of kindness or self-sacrifice or bravery makes u believe in humanity, but it's far and few in between..Michael Fassbinder's physical transformation during the time of the hunger strike was shocking to behold..The last scene of him with eyes open and the gaunt face and the white skin and hollow cheeks is something I hope no human being has to ever endure to get their point across..And the scene in the mess hall with the priest was a revelation in how not to mess with the structure of a scene, but just let the drama unfold in it's own time and develop a quiet power of its ownOverall, a moving tale and there are some graphic and strong scenes which are not for everyone to behold..But do yourself a favor, if you do go to see this movie..Do not for one second turn your eyes away from the screen..Watch all of it so that you are so sickened by it that you and I can realize that there are people still dying of hunger and atrocities are still being committed on innocent people even today...
A bleak and unflinching true tale with a three-part structure that depicts what took place in Northern Ireland's infamous Maze Prison back in 1981 when(1) a block of flouting IRA captives staged a shocking blanket and no-wash protest in hope of obtaining POW status, (2) an on-edge prison guard and his colleagues beat and abused the insurgents silly and (3) protest chief Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) led a perilous hunger strike.You may've gathered that the film's title is something of a double entendre, then.
It's also jarring how McQueen structures his film it terms of silent and sound: there's a fifteen minute stretch (almost all in one two-shot) where there's nothing but dialog between Sands and the priest (albeit a riveting conversation about sacrifice and humanity), but aside from this it's all just watching first the IRA members in the horror of prison conditions, and second Sands in his deterioration of the hunger strike.And yet it is a powerful experience and a stunning debut.
They almost never work, and the only thing they do is pander to the avant garde film elite, and inflate the filmmakers ego by allowing them to proclaim themselves "artists." For people, like myself, who are looking to see a good movie, they represent a good hour and a half of tedium."Hunger" tells the story of Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbinder), an IRA prisoner who goes on a hunger strike to protest the fact that IRA prisoners are not being considered political prisoners (what this means is never explained).This could have been a powerful story, had co-writer and director Steve McQueen actually wanted to tell it.
The first hour is non-stop (and non-verbal) images of men being tortured and degraded, and smearing their own feces all over the walls.There is one scene of this movie that works, and that's the roughly 20 minute scene between Bobby Sands and the priest he tells about the plan for the hunger strike.
4.5*If someone doesn't know the story behind the Irish hunger strikes, or who Bobby Sands is, this film will leave him in darkness.
Hunger shows us Irish Republican Army (IRA) activists, whom prisoners demand to be treated as political prisoners (their goal was to separate Northern Ireland from the UK and re-emigrate to Ireland), receiving inhuman treatment, being humiliated and having to cope with daily violence, led by Bobby Sands (Fassbender), decide to go on a hunger strike to have their orders met.
Steve McQueen's feature film debut is a brutally intense, downright disturbing & extremely upsetting cinema covering the infamous Irish hunger strike of 1981.
And while it makes up for a very difficult sitting due to its graphic depiction of the brutality that was inflicted on the prisoners, it also marks a terrific start to the directional career of one of modern cinema's boldest new filmmakers.Set in Northern Ireland around the early 1980s, Hunger explores the life in Maze Prison where Republican inmates are protesting to regain their political status which was revoked by the British government a few years ago.
After depicting much of the gruesome torture, the plot finally focuses on the events leading to the 1981 IRA hunger strike that was led by Bobby Sands to his death after 66 days of starvation.Co-written & directed by Steve McQueen, Hunger opens on a disturbing note & stays that way for the rest of its runtime.
What I found was a matter of fact retelling of the hunger strike without fanfare, special effects or heroic sappy dialog.There is an extended one shot scene that features Sands (Michael Fassbender) and a priest named Father Dominic Moran (Liam Cunningham).
Speaking in terms of contemporary independent cinema, Steve McQueen's Hunger is one of the many powerful works I've seen, with the ability to shock and completely mesmerize a viewer.The film is a heartstopping portrayal of the treatment the Irish Republican Army (IRA) members received in prison after their political status was revoked.
Never do we see the outside of the prison, giving the viewer the impression that our characters have been locked away so long that they don't know how the outside even looks anymore.Another powerful scene comes later in the film; it's a conversation between Bobby and a priest (Liam Cunningham) captured in one single static shot lasting for a lengthy but engrossing seventeen minutes.
This somewhat biographical, historic, humane and heartrending drama from the late 2000s which is set in the HM Prison Maze during the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the late 1970s and early 1980s and where a physically and mentally challenged and uncompromising man from West Belfast has one final conversation with a Roman Catholic priest from Kilrea, County Londonderry in Northern Ireland named Dom before making a life-altering decision, is impelled and reinforced by it's fragmented narrative structure, subtle character development, rhythmic continuity, poignant and masterful dialog scene, jarring, reflective and efficient silence, modernistic style of filmmaking with artistic illustrations that stands in exquisite contrast to the harsh mercilessness that rules behind the walls and the reverent and involving acting performances by German-Irish actor Michael Fassbender and Irish actor Liam Cunningham.
However, we become quite sympathetic towards him, for his arguments, his resolution and, most important of all, director Steve McQueen's minute attention to details, which enable us to really feel the pain and suffering Sands goes through during his hunger strike, both physically and mentally, as the limits of his body and mind are put to the test.Another positive point of the film is that it, though briefly, takes us to the lives of another character in the film.
One of the most spectacular scene is the most static: a long dialogue (about 18 minutes) between Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) and Father Dominic Moran (Liam Cunningham), including 14 minutes of a long-shot where they are filmed from the left side of the room.
all done with such memorable artistry, that it was immediately evident that McQueen is a superb storyteller, uninterested in the simple story, but excited by the context.The entire plot of the movie is built up upon through one 17-minute static scene, where Bobby Sands and Dominic Moran meet in a prison cell to discuss the hunger strike - in an attempt to explain the considerations that forced the situation.
"I have my belief, and in all its simplicity that is the most powerful thing."Steve McQueen's feature debut, Hunger, is a realistic and brutal portrayal of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) activists who are protesting their miserable treatment at the Belfast prison known as The Maze.
Halfway through the film we are introduced to another IRA prisoner, Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender), who has decided that the best way they can protest is by beginning a hunger strike.
Hunger (2008), Film 4 Cert:15Dir. Steve McQueen Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, Liam McMahon.McQueen tells the untold story of Bobby Sands.
Film about IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in 1981 but although the film is bookended by some on screen text that puts it in its historical and political context, it is mostly concerned with the actions of the individuals involved – the guards and the prisoners.For the majority of the film there is hardly any speech, you just see the very grim day-to-day reality - except for the key scene of the film which is a conversation between Sands and a priest which is done in two long, unmoving takes.It's quite a powerful film, and very hard to watch in places.
The film follows the story of Bobby Sands, a member of the IRA incarcerated in Northern Ireland's Maze prison.
Hunger is about the real-life story, of an IRA Hunger strike, that took place in the HM prison maze in Northern Ireland, lead by Bobby Sands.
Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) leads the prisoners in a hunger strike.It's quiet film and full of little details.
It is a sad story but one that is more powerful than just plain sad, brings a strong message and even if you fall on either side or don't care, it still make's you think, and just like a film should.Michael Fassbender is the main actor in this and does a wonderful yet powerful performance as Bobby Sands who is one of the key figures in the hunger strikes seen in the film.
This film tells the story of (among others) the circumstances surrounding the hunger strike and death of Bobby Sands.
The first narrative feature by the British installation artist Steve McQueen, it accounts the hunger strike-to-death of the IRA leader Bobby Sands.