as per, but a vast amount of it is very directly autobiographical. and where it isn t, i think there s a sort of emotional truthfulness about what the film embraces, which is that at nine years old, when the world for this young lad literally turns upside down, where the ground is taken from beneath his feet, the pavements on which we stood 20 minutes previously are lifted up by a rioting mob, and a few hours later, the population s scared and back in their houses, spills out, lifts those same paving stones and suddenly, there s a barricade at either end of the street. so there was a quality of dream, nightmare that a nine year old was trying to cope with that is, that is part of the nature of it, but a lot of it s true. even though there is humour and a sense of optimism throughout the film, i mean, this is a moment in history,
a film called belfast. uh-huh. how autobiographical a film is it? well, erm, it s seen through the eyes of nine year old buddy. it s seen at 50 years distance from me. so, inevitably, not everything happened absolutely as per but a vast amount of it is very directly autobiographical and where it isn t, i think there s a sort of emotional truthfulness about what the film embraces which is, that at nine years old, when the world for this young lad, literally turns upside down, where the ground is taken from beneath his feet, the pavements on which we stood 20 minutes previously are lifted up by a rioting mob, and a few hours later, the population s scared and back in their houses, spills out, lifts those same paving stones and suddenly, there s a barricade at either end of the street, so there was a quality of dream, nightmare, that a nine year old was trying
and from the radio, and so the sense of being in a sort of tumult was very, very palpable. were you scared? most certainly scared. i mean, there s a scene at the beginning of the film which recreates the moment where it kicked off for us. and, you know, it was very alarming, really, to see ten year old jude hill, under this table in the back room as my brother and i were, reallyjust, unable to comprehend what was going on but we knew that stones and bricks were flying through the windows, it turned out, of neighbours, but it could easily have been ours. and, erm, it puts you in that position of sort of facing the world with your shoulders hunched, ready for the unexpected. it means that what follows is not easy but sometimes, it means that you rush to every possible means of losing that feeling so any humour to be found, any distraction, any entertainment
to cope with that is part of the nature of it but a lot of it s true. even though there is humour and a sense of optimism throughout the film, i mean, this is a moment in history, 1969, where real violence erupted on the streets. i mean, the idea of the father in the film being threatened by the protestant hard men for refusing to go along with the gangs and threatening his catholic neighbours, was that something that directly happened to your father? there was a sense, you couldn t be in that part of belfast at that time, at least through my nine year old eyes, you couldn t be, unless there was some sense of threat and the possibility of intimidation. and are they really vivid memories that you have? i mean, just taking yourself back to those moments, of those paving stones being dug up and the barricades being erected, was there a sense in your mind, as a young kid, that something very dangerous was happening, that there was some kind of weird
of it but a lot of it s true. even though there is humour and a sense of optimism throughout the film, i mean, this is a moment in history, 1969, where real violence erupted on the streets. i mean, the idea of the father in the film being threatened by the protestant hard men for refusing to go along with the gangs and threatening his catholic neighbours, was that something that directly happened to your father? there was a sense, you couldn t be in that part of belfast at that time, at least through my nine year old eyes, you couldn t be, unless there was some sense of threat and the possibility of intimidation. and are they really vivid memories that you have? i mean, just taking yourself back to those moments, of those paving stones being dug up and the barricades being erected, was there a sense in your mind, as a young kid, that something very dangerous was happening, that there was some kind of weird seismic shift happening on the