a5c7b9f00b 1971. Instead of being sent to Germany after the completion of basic trainingthey expect, Private Gary Hook and the rest of his regiment with the British Army are deployed early to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where tensions are rising between the Protestant Loyalists and the Catholic Republicans, the latter militarized under the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The regiment&#39;s task is largely to maintain the peace within the conflict while the local police do their job related to the conflict. Much of the populace, especially on the Catholic side, will not be happy to see the British Army intervention. While the regiment is dealing with a situation in Belfast that has the potential to escalate into a full blown riot, Hook, due to a specific incident within the situation, is separated from the rest of the regiment. He has to try to make his way back to the barracks on his own, which will be difficulthe doesn&#39;t have his bearings within the neighborhood, andhe knows a few young men in particular, they with the Provisional IRA, will shoot to kill him, those within the provisional army who are younger, and generally more willing to take extreme measures for the cause in their inexperience. In the process, Hook will find that many are caught in the middle in some form or another, some who do not believe in the conflict or the potential loss of life regardless of which side they fall on, and some who, despite their official positions, may take what may seem on the surface to be uncharacteristic measures, which may help or hinder Hook, all for their self-serving motives. A young British soldier is accidentally abandoned by his unit following a terrifying riot on the streets of Belfast in 1971. Unable to tell friend from foe, the raw recruit must survive the night alone and find his way to safety through a disorienting, alien and deadly landscape. Long story short, watch this movie, it doesn&#39;t hold back any punches. Although the plot is very simple, it&#39;s paced so well with an even tension throughout, and bursts of gritty violence, that it keeps you intrigued from beginning to end.<br/><br/>This film is a wonderful example of why I love cinema. It brings faraway stories right into our eyes. For people who&#39;ve only heard there was/is &quot;some tension&quot; going on in that part of the world, this finally puts a real face on it, and (mentally) puts you right in the thick of it.<br/><br/>The acting was superb. The script was fantastic. The execution was spot on. Fantastic film. I have had first hand experience of the Troubles and I must say this movie was exceptionally realistic. The riot scenes were spot on, and many of the scenarios did actually happen (though not in one night). The brutal execution of the soldier at the edges of a riotdepicted in the film actually happened (in 1986 I believe) but the second soldier did not escape in the real event. There were many own goal bombs justshown in the plot and we now know that individual army officers took on amateur special operations roles and often made a mess of things (Cpt Nairac). <br/><br/>There was lots of understated dialog which probably those unfamiliar with the history and culture will miss e.g. The class tension between the Sandhurst educated officer and his men - the fact that the man who assisted the soldier in Divis was an ex soldier, the split loyalties, the compassion of ordinary people, the lack of hate in the young gunman - the military hearing with foregone conclusion - the Jamaican corporal - so many subtleties in this film shone through. <br/><br/>Two small anachronisms which I spotted (which in no way takes away from the film&#39;s brilliance) was the fact that the dead soldier was left alone until evening. This would not have happened. The protocol among the Catholic community of the time would have been to inform the local priest and he would have called the RUC barracks and told them. The place would then have been saturated with at least a battalion - not the couple of squads you see turning up. The second thing was Guinness being served in a Loyalist pub. Yes, even the drinks were a sectarian marker. This outstanding, muscular feature debut for French-born, British-based director Yann Demange almost never puts a foot wrong, from the softly underplayed performances to the splendidly speckled cinematography and fine-grained period detailing.
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