Film: Hunger
Director: Steve McQueen
Country: UK
Released: May 2008
Runtime: 96 minutes
Genre: Historical Drama
Studio: Blast! Films, Film4
Influenced: Barry Jenkins, Dee Rees, Chloé Zhao, Cary Fukunaga, Jordan Peele
Many great films have been made about Northern Ireland and the Troubles, from Alan Clarke's Elephant (1989) and Jim Sheridan's In The Name Of The Father (1993) to Paul Greengrass' Bloody Sunday (2002) and my personal favourite Good Vibrations (2012), but nothing quite matches Steve McQueen's Hunger for emotional power and artistic prowess. The movie primarily focuses on the 1981 Irish hunger strike led by Bobby Sands, a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member who protested against the British government's refusal to recognise the political status of IRA prisoners. The film's origins can be traced back to McQueen's personal connection to the conflict in Northern Ireland, having grown up in London during the Troubles. He was particularly moved by the story of Sands, seeing him as an enigmatic figure who embodied the resilience of the human spirit.
Set in the Maze Prison, near Belfast, Hunger follows Sands – played by Michael Fassbender in his breakout cinematic role – as he prepares for and engages in the hunger strike. The film vividly captures the physical and psychological toll of the hunger strike, as Sands and his fellow inmates slowly waste away. To accurately capture the appalling prison conditions, McQueen carried out extensive research, including conducting interviews with previous inmates of the Maze's cell block H, as well as some of the prison officers. We hear the voices of British politicians in Westminster on the radio in various scenes, notably that of Maggie Thatcher, who casts a huge shadow over the film and its characters. McQueen's approach to storytelling is marked by his use of long takes and minimal dialogue, creating a visually striking experience. This approach make the pivotal conversation scene between Sands and Father Dominic Moran (Liam Cunningham), which occurs later in the movie and is heavy on dialogue, all the more powerful.
A telling moment in the conversation, which largely focuses on the morality of conducting a hunger strike when death is the likely outcome, is when Sands says he used to be a cross country runner, in answer to Moran's question about where he gets all his energy from. Sands tells an anecdote from his youth about once finding a dying foal in a stream, while away with friends at a cross country event, and how he did the right thing, which meant drowning it to prevent it from suffering from further pain. He said he chose this cause of action because it was ethically the right thing to do, whatever the consequences might be, in this case punishment from a priest. Likewise, he feels undergoing a hunger strike is the right moral action, even if means the intransigence of the British government will cause him to die. To capture the physical and emotional turmoil of Sands and the other inmates, McQueen and his cinematographer Sean Bobbitt used handheld cameras, extreme close-ups and stark lighting.
Hunger received widespread critical acclaim and won the Caméra d'Or at Cannes in 2008, awarded to the best first feature film by an emerging director. McQueen also won a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. Also of note is the editing by Joe Walker and the film's soundtrack, composed by Jocelyn Pook, primarily comprised of low-frequency hums and drones, to evoke the sensation of hunger. Fassbender's performance is also outstanding, and he underwent a significant physical transformation for the role, losing 14 kilograms (31 pounds) over the course of filming to accurately represent the physical transformation of the character. His performance garnered widespread praise, establishing him as a rising talent in the film industry. McQueen has also gone from strength to strength since Hunger, continuing to make intense and unflinching movies about political history, notably slavery in the case of 12 Years A Slave (2013), for which he won the Oscar for Best Picture.
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