Director speaks of Maze film hopes

4:24pm Saturday 17th May 2008

The director of a film about life in the Maze prison has said he hopes the people of Northern Ireland would have an open mind about the movie.

Hunger, which covers the highly emotive events surrounding the 1981 IRA hunger strike, opened the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, which encourages innovative works and young talent.

Directed by London-born Turner Prize winner Steve McQueen, the film stars Irish actor Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands.

Asked about how people in Northern Ireland would see the film, McQueen said: "I would hope they have an open mind, and that was all."

He said of the people of Northern Ireland: "I respect them immensely."

McQueen said that although politics was at the basis of the film, he did not think of the movie as political.

What he focused on, McQueen said, was the extreme situation of human beings in H Block and the routine and rituals.

He said he thought of an image of a parent and child "where the only power that child has is to refrain from eating".

Asked if the film could open up old wounds, McQueen said: "I think that people are much more intelligent than people think...

"It is a case of reflecting on the recent past and having a debate on the recent past in an intelligent fashion. That's what it's about."

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