HUNGER (IRELAND/2008/STEVE MCQUEEN)

Hunger, the debut feature from Turner Prize winner Steve McQueen, tells the story of Bobby Sands, the Provisional IRA volunteer who led the famous Maze prison hunger strike in 1981. We start the film as the prison takes in its newest inmate Davey. After being stripped of his clothes, Davey is thrown into a faeces-covered cell where he meets Gerry, with whom he shares a rebellious spirit. The two join the ongoing no wash protest, spearheaded by our uncooperative protagonist. Despite repeated challenges to their cause, the men refuse to be undermined, apparently growing hardier with every beating. In the film’s famous 17-minute shot, Sands speaks with his priest about his decision to initiate a hunger strike, and soon after we bear witness to the shocking effects of his self-destructive protest.

McQueen does not contrive events for effect; rather he removes them. The film eschews a political bias – the cause is all but forgotten, save for Sands’ exchange with the priest, and the occasional chant of “I-I-IRA”. Throughout the first half of the film, we are also shown the daily routine of Raymond Lohan, the guard with whom Sands clashes for forcibly cutting his hair. In one of the film’s most distressing scenes, Lohan is assassinated while visiting his elderly mother in her retirement home. The event is no less horrifying than the sight of a dishevelled Sands struggling to sit upright, typifying McQueen’s ability to balance objectivity with humanism. Visually unadulterated and magnificently acted, Hunger is an outstanding debut.

MISE ÉIRE (IRELAND/1959/GEORGE MORRISON)

Named after the poem by Irish Republican leader Pádraic Pearse, Mise Éire documents Irish history from 1896-1918, particularly the 1916 Easter Rising and its effects. In mimesis of Seán Ó Riada’s dramatic score, the film is split into three parts. In Part I, we are given a concise summary of history before the dawn of cinema. British soldiers are seen training for the Boer War. We hear briefly about the foundation of the Gaelic League, Sinn Féin and the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union. We also see rare footage of Thomas Clarke and Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, two revolutionaries who had spent long stretches in prison for their actions. Part II deals with the Easter Rising, the insurrection by the Irish Republicans which led to the eventual establishment of the Irish Republic. Part III presents an Ireland newly imbued with hope and purpose, and simple descriptions of positive events such as the release of Irish Volunteers from English prisons end the documentary on an optimistic note.

Mise Éire, while not pretending to be anything but a patriotic chronicle of Irish history, is charmingly artless in its delivery. Director George Morrison is said to have trawled through approximately seventy hours of silent newsreel footage to piece together his work, and the occasional discontinuity between event descriptions is an endearing reflection of this. However, the film’s meticulous recitation of history has little effect in a modern context, particularly as most of the facts and footage are accessible to anyone via the internet.