Cal, a young man on the fringes of the IRA, falls in love with Marcella, a Catholic woman whose husband, a Protestant policeman, was killed one year earlier by the IRA.
Acting
Helen Mirren's wounded dignity, John Lynch's desperate hunger.
Direction
O'Connor captures Belfast's suffocating gray-blue despair.
Writing
MacLaverty's novel adapted with zero sentimentality.
Director
Pat O'Connor
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
John Lynch was so broke he slept on the film's set during production. Method living for method acting.
Released at the height of the Troubles, it was banned in some UK cinemas for 'sympathizing with terrorists'—missing the point entirely.
GB
