Kenneth Branagh
Belfast

Like marcom63 wrote in his 2022 review, I didn't do any research before watching this film today. That being said, I add that the film is worth the money spent at the cinema if only for the soundtrack by Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison, who, for the occasion, also writes a new song "Down to Joy", along with eight of his other classics that have stood the test of time.

It's not my place to judge if it's deserved or not, but it's with this film that Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh, after eight nominations over the years, will take home an Oscar for "Best Original Screenplay."

The film is the semi-autobiographical story of the director, who was born and raised in Belfast. It recounts events mostly through the eyes of a child towards the end of the '60s in Northern Ireland, where a true civil war raged among its citizens for political and religious reasons (as usual...). It doesn't really delve into these conflicts except marginally; rather, it mainly shows the struggles of a working-class family dealing with everyday problems we are all familiar with, namely economic ones.

For 99.99% of the film, it is in black and white, but it opens in color (a directorial choice I can't really explain, but there it is) with a musical piece by Van The Man, whose presence I didn't expect but appreciated, and I don't know in how many other films the same thing happens.

What else is there to say? Nothing, except that I often found it boring despite its short duration, but it does convey something about how even those who didn't side with one faction or the other were forced to live, and that's that...