Hunger provides plenty of food for thought

AINE O'CONNOR

November 02 2008 04:47 AM

Hunger

Cert 15A

STEVE McQUEEN was an 11-year-old in Manchester when Bobby Sands and nine other men starved themselves to death in the Maze prison in 1981. Hunger is his and Irish writer Enda Walsh's take on the story. And it is remarkable.

A triptych, the first part is almost wordless, as Davey, a new inmate arrives in the Maze prison, is labelled "uncooperative" and becomes another unwashed, long-haired man in a tiny cell smeared with faeces and rotting food, until they are taken and forcibly cleaned up. Pools of urine pour in unison from under doors. Visiting time and mass are chances to smuggle contraband and swap ingeniously secreted messages.

The second part is an incredible unbroken 27- minute scene between Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) and a priest (Liam Cunningham). One single shot of the two men talking over a table, the composition, lighting, plumes of cigarette smoke bear testimony to McQueen's art background. However, it is the acting that shines, Fassbender and Cunningham rehearsed it repeatedly to get the seamless flow as the two men debate the value of the protest, IRA PR and of giving a life to make a point.

Fassbender lost more than three stone for the hunger striker role, and delivers an extraordinarily intense performance. The prisoners' demands seem relatively minor now and there is little contextualisation of the Troubles in general, although it does manage to convey the tribalism of that struggle and the siege mentality. However, while the film focuses on the bitter, brutal power struggle within the prison -- a scene where the riot police come in to enforce a strip search and cavity check is particularly brutal and graphic, all the more so as one of their number withdraws, sobbing -- it is clear that it reaches far beyond the walls and the officers can never leave it behind.

The final section of the film documents the graphically hideous process of starvation.

If you can stand it, see it.