The other night I had a “first”: I went to the movies for the first time since early 2020, when I saw “1917.” This was another historical drama, based on director Kenneth Branagh’s childhood in Belfast, at the onset of the Troubles, the long period of violence between Catholics and Protestants that plagued the region until the 1999 Good Friday Agreement.
I studied the conflict and have spent a lot of time in Northern Ireland and specifically Belfast, so I knew this was a picture I had to see on the big screen.
I’ve seen some reviewers call “Belfast” saccharine, and perhaps it is. That’s probably inherent to any narrative reflecting on a childhood through rose-colored lenses. But I found Branagh’s storytelling illuminating.
The primary conflict of the story is whether the family should leave Belfast in light of both rising violence and unemployment. To the outsider, it’s difficult to understand the mother’s hesitation. There is mortal danger literally outside their front door, and the father has an excellent opportunity in England.
But the mother (played by Caitríona Balfe, and the acting is stellar across the cast) powerfully conveys her reluctance. Belfast is their home, it’s where they grew up. All their family are there. Everyone on the street knows them and their children, and help look out for them. The English won’t accept them, or their accents. It’s a reminder of how hard it is to emigrate, even if the life one is abandoning is filled with the worst dangers one can imagine.
Where I really got swept up, though, is when, by the end of the film, the mother’s arguments are turned on their head. Yes, it can be beautiful to grow up in a tight-knit neighborhood. But everybody knowing you isn’t always a good thing. It means the people you trust can manipulate you into bad behavior — or that the people you don’t trust always know where to find you. And as much as you want it to, the neighborhood ultimately can’t protect you from events beyond its borders.
There’s a tendency to assume that insular communities are safer. It’s possible that, on balance, they are. But “Belfast” explores the limitations of homogeneity, and the complicated interplay between the comforts and dangers of the familiar.
Shana Goldberg may be reached at shana@ijn.com
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