REVIEWS
Reviews edited by Mark Adams mark.adams@screendaily.com
’71 Reviewed by Mark Adams A tense and exciting action drama about a young British soldier stranded on the mean streets of Belfast in Northern Ireland in the early years of The Troubles, the impressively mounted ’71 is a remarkably assured feature debut for Yann Demange. While politics lie at the heart of the film, its story does not aim to tackle the deeply thorny issue of the sectarian divide — instead it focuses on the horrors of a teen soldier caught up in a situation he can barely understand. Screening in Competition here, the film balances intense and often thrilling action with intriguingly developed and complex supporting characters. The young lead soldier may be something of an innocent abroad, but those he comes into contact with are caught up in the dark complexities of the two violent sides of the conflict. The film is also a great calling card for the talents of France-born, UK-based director Demange (Channel 4 series Top Boy), who has crafted a film that juggles dramatic sensibilities with well-staged moments of full-on action. In England in 1971, new recruit Gary Hook (O’Connell) and his fellow squaddies expect to be posted to Germany, but find themselves sent to Northern Ireland — “because of the deteriorating security situation in Belfast”. The young recruits are thrust straight into action when they have to escort the brutal Royal Ulster Constabulary in a house search in the Catholic community.
n 12 Screen International at Berlin February 7, 2014
Competition UK. 2014. 99mins Director Yann Demange Production companies Crab Apple Films, Warp Films, Film4, Screen Yorkshire, BFI, Creative Scotland International sales Protagonist, www. protagonistpictures.com Producers Robin Gutch, Angus Lamont Executive producers Sam Lavender, Tessa Ross, Dan Macrae, Danny Perkins, Hugo Heppell, Mark Herbert, Lizzie Francke, Leslie Finlay Screenplay Gregory Burke Cinematography Tat Radcliffe Editor Chris Wyatt Production designer Chris Oddy Main cast Jack O’Connell, Paul Anderson, Richard Dormer, Sean Harris, Barry Keoghan, Martin McCann, Charlie Murphy, Sam Reid, Killian Scott, David Wilmot, Jack Lowden, Babou Ceesay, Corey McKinley
» ’71 p12 » Thou Wast Mild And Lovely p16 » Jack p14 » Nuoc 2030 p18 » The Kidnapping Of Michel Houellebecq p14 » Los Angeles p18 » Butter On The Latch p16
The city is divided between Protestant Loyalist areas (defined as “friendly” by the officers) and the Catholic Nationalist areas (“hostile”), with the latter also torn apart by a feud between the official IRA and the younger, more radical and violent Provisional IRA. When the soldiers find themselves under attack by an angry crowd, Hook and his comrade Thommo (Lowden) are separated from the squad, and to his horror Hook sees his friend shot point-blank by two men. Before he is also targeted, Hook manages to run off in the confusion and is chased through a maze of narrow back-alleys and rat-runs (in a gripping and thrilling sequence similar to the chase scene in Point Break), finally managing to take refuge in an outhouse. Under cover of darkness Hook steals a jumper to cover his uniform and tries to find his way through the city streets, dodging running battles between
Protestant and Catholic youth, and eventually being ‘rescued’ by a loyalist boy named Billy (McKinley) — whose accent is so thick it actually may need to be subtitled — who takes him to a loyalist pub. But things go from bad to worse as the pub is devastated by a bomb blast. Seriously wounded he is helped by a father and daughter — Eamon (Dormer) and Brigid (Murphy). He is carried back to their flat in a Catholic estate, the same area the soldiers were warned not to enter during their first briefing. With both the army and Provisional IRA gunmen hunting for him, the scene is set for a final showdown as the young soldier witnesses the brutal deviousness of the conflict as bodies fall and duplicitous pacts are made. The dangerous complexities of The Troubles in Northern Ireland during that period are viewed with uncomprehending eyes by the young soldier, with Jack O’Connell impressive in a role that calls for him to be naive and disbelieving about the horrors around him. The film is at its tense, visceral best as a terrified, injured and confused Hook has to find his way through the warren of streets, with Demange filming the sequences with a great sense of pace and excitement. ’71 is beautifully shot by Tat Radcliffe and benefits from wonderful production design and costumes. A book-end device of Hook and his young brother is there to reinforce the emotional value but in truth adds little to the film, with its rather low-key ending actually detracting from the intensity that has gone before.
Screen Score
★★★