Hungry for Avatar

It felt odd to watch Avatar and Hunger, two films that couldn't possibly be more different, within two days. One is a computer-generated, 3D blockbuster set on the imaginary planet of Pandora, replaying a spate of Hollywood cliches in spectacular, new technology, the other is a brutal, minimalist drama based on the true story of the hunger strikes in Northern Ireland in the 70s, teeming with emotion and beauty despite austere means of expression.

And, obviously, it's Steve McQueen's Hunger that came top in my private contest (one that probably doesn't make sense) which pitted the American Goliath against the British David. For the lion's share of its duration, the story's told without dialogue, only background sounds of the radio, distant conversations or natural noises, which keeps the attention tightly locked in the pictures. And what we see documents, in detail and to a stunning aesthetic effect, the police clampdown on Northern Irish nationalists, their brutal treatment by the authorities, their unrelenting resistance in prison and finally the hunger strike of Bobby Sands. When it needs to be, Hunger is extremely realistic, gritty, letting you smell the urine the detained spill in the Maze prison corridor, feel the disorienting burden put on the police operatives or even see Bobby Sands waste away day after day up close. Not all that is a pleasant sight, but it perfectly brings out what conflict is about - mutual confrontation, collective strains, individual determination, all driven to the furthest extremes. And when it needs to be, it's deeply metaphorical - the scene of Sands dying melts with the sight of a flock of flying birds and his childhood dream which in itself holds the key to his motivation in pursuing the hunger strike. In the single-take conversation scene with the priest when Bobby admits to wanting to die for the cause in the strike and the two engage in the moral dispute, he retells one day in his teenage years when, at a cross-country running competition for Irish children from both sides of the border, a group of boys stumbled across a dying beggar at the river and he was the only one brave enough to help him go, others scared stiff. And this time round too, with his unflinching spirit and conviction, Sands elects, against the priest's insistance to the contrary, not to bow on his intention to use his body as a weapon. His move, joined by 9 others after his slow demise, marks a breakthrough in the conflict and leads the British authorities (Margaret Thatcher) to meet the demands of the nationalists (recognition of the political status for prisoners).

In the cinama room packed with the audience, it was easy to feel the agitation Hunger caused, gripping the viewers right from the start and letting them stand up only after the information section at the end. A lot of them were stunned and so was I.

Some reviews: the Guardian, the Times, the Belfast Telegraph, The Daily Telegraph and the Irish Times, Rolling Stone and Belfast Today.