A drama documenting the last six weeks in the life of Irish Republican Army (IRA) member Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) who led the 1981 hunger strike to protest the treatment of his fellow prisoners.
The final months of Bobby Sands, the Irish Republican Army activist who protested his treatment at the hands of British prison guards with a hunger strike, are chronicled in this historical drama, the first feature film from artist turned filmmaker Steve McQueen. Davey Gillen (Brian Milligan) is an IRA volunteer who is sentenced to Belfast’s infamous Maze prison, where he shares a cell with fellow IRA member Gerry Campbell (Liam McMahon). Like most of the IRA volunteers behind bars, Gillen and Campbell are subjected to frequent violence by the guards, who in turn live with the constant threat of assassination at the hands of Republicans during their off hours.
Campbell and Gillen are taking part in a protest in which they and their fellow IRA inmates are refusing to wear standard prison-issue uniforms as a protest against Britain’s refusal to recognize them as political prisoners, a move that is complicating their efforts to pass information among the other prisoners.
Production notes provided by IFC Films.
Hunger
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Stuart Graham, Helena Bereen, Larry Cowan, Liam Cunningham, Dennis McCambridge, Liam McMahon
Directed by: Steve McQueen
Screenplay by: Steve McQueen, Enda Walsh
Release Date: March 20, 2009
MPAA Rating: None.
Studio: IFC Films
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $153,477 (5.7%)
Foreign: $2,537,746 (94.3%)
Total: $2,691,223 (Worldwide)